Fathoms Below
by VanillaSpiders
Summary: AU. Danny Fenton does not believe in sea monsters and merpeople until of course, he sees one. Ghost hunting sounds like a much better job for his parents, but then again what does he know. And the merman nicknamed Phantom just doesn't seem to know what to make of him. complete
1. Chapter 1

_**Chapter 1**_

Danny Fenton sat on the bench of his parents boat, staring with unseeing eyes into the water below the glass bottom that took up a good 3 feet of the middle of the little boat. It was hot, and the seagulls were loud and the cool water he was not allowed into was all around them, except for about 150 feet behind him, where there was land and his friends and his computer and a life.

So yes, Danny was miserable and his parents, like usual, were having none of it.

He wanted to tell them, there were most likely no such things as half the creatures down in the depths they kept going on about since he was old enough to remember. Mermaids, sea snakes, leviathans…fairy tales, Danny was pretty sure, just like his sister was.

Except…well it was really dark down there and the ocean went on forever so…

Alright, maybe mythical creature was more believable than, say, a ghost or something.

"….guys, can we please go back? It's almost 12….I promised Sam and Tucker I'd meet them at the Pier for lunch." What? It was true enough, he'd asked them if they could, and anyway he was allowed to add the slight whine to his voice.

"Oh son, we're almost there. Besides, this time we've got some solid information on the locations, this could be the jackpot!"

"So you_ didn't_ hear this one from a drunken sailor with a peg leg." Danny muttered into his palm, playing with a loose string on his swim trunks.

"Sweetie, there's some sandwiches in the icebox, oh and some apple juice too!"

"Actually he had two! Not sure how that worked out for him….ah well." Jack rambled on and on as he worked, and kept on muttering, making Danny slump over in his seat more and consider cracking his head on the glass. Maybe bleeding from the skull would convince them to turn around and this day could end…

That was when he saw a flash of bright shimmering silver, so quick that when he blinked in surprise it was gone into the depths. Woah.

"….Mom? Dad?" He said slowly, raising his tone as the figure flicked round them again, though nothing changed on his parent's equipment, and the boat didn't even rock once.

"Not now sweetie, we're trying to listen to the echolocation device!"

"But—" Danny didn't finish his sentence. He was too busy staring at the black thing darting under the boat, like it was chasing after something. He leaned over and with a long undulation of its body it was gone. It almost seemed to become _invisible_ against the bottom of the ocean, that if Danny wasn't looking for it he'd never have seen the figure. By then his father had wandered closer and Danny finally found his voice.

"Hey, Dad, are there any fish that are uhm, like…long and black and silver?"

"…eh? Danny-son, that'd be an orca. Or a half man half orca, could be! ….but these aren't the waters for them. Unless ones lost. You know son one time…"

Danny zoned out on everything after that, raking his eyes through the nest of underwater plants and fish and starfish for that big black mass again.

Maybe ghost hunting wasn't such a bad idea, because that thing had looked _huge_.


	2. Chapter 2

_**Chapter 2**_

Danny looked around from his spot on the bench, trying not to be too obvious or rock the boat too much.

"So uhm….how are you guys gonna find a sea monster again?" Danny spoke, making his voice as nonchalant as possible as he kept an eye on the glass floor.

"Ohh lots of ways Danny, even just getting a look would be a victory! The ocean is huge yes, but few creatures migrate, with any luck what we're looking for doesn't and will be in these waters all year round!" His mother said cheerfully from over a plate of dials and buttons and radar. Something blipped quietly but nothing else happened that proved Danny wasn't just seeing things. _If Mom and Dad's stuff isn't picking anything up…am I losing it?_

"Just like any old fish, Danny, lure it!" said Jack simply.

"…like….with what, with a worm?"

When both his parents chuckled, Danny realized no, not with a worm at all.

"With _fish_, son fish! Assuming merpeople like fish, but there have been slashed fishing nets in these parts for years. All the local fishermen have seen it or had it happen to them."

"Guys, that seems a little cannibalistic...maybe their freeing their friends or something?"

"And leaving just bones behind?"

Danny went quiet and shrugged, what did he know about merthings and sea monsters, okay? Up until he'd just wanted to in the inland with his friends, maybe eating junk food, playing videos games. Now though…his interest was piqued, and he had no clue why. He also wasn't sure what he'd seen wasn't just a trick of the light or a really small…lost orca…so for now he couldn't bring himself to tell his mom and dad. With that, Danny went back to watching the water lap the side of the boat.

Fish…

When Danny was sure his parents attention wasn't on him anymore, he quietly took a small fish from the cooler and slipped it over the side of the boat, then leaned back but kept his eye on the floating fish, waiting. It lay on its side, quite dead, and moved with the water, which wasn't choppy or rough at all, but certainly wasn't smooth.

Nothing happened.

After ten minutes he sighed and turned round on the bench, just as that silver and black streaked under the glass floor window of the S.S. Fentonfisher. For a second Danny's didn't believe it, until he saw the seaweed part wildly in the wake of this creature's movement.

Danny's eyes widened, and he flung back around toward the side of the boat—the fish was gone.

But…not even a ripple! How…

"…You alright Danny?"

"Huh? Oh fine, yeah…just a little sea sick...thought I should throw up uhm, over the boat and stuff." His parents were so focused in their work they didn't even question his words, and for that Danny was grateful for once.

"We should head back anyway Jack…the thermal reader isn't going to work today it looks like, and if we can't even get a reading off the mass size down there, well…"

"Looks like you can catch your friends for some dinner at the crab shack after all, son! Your mother and I are gonna spend tonight fixing this little mess after all."

"Huh? Oh, yeah…"

If his parents noticed Danny's silence, they didn't mention it. From then until they hit land they were engrossed in discussions of the faulty equipment and the what might have been, but Danny only listened halfheartedly. He was watching the spot they were heading away from, when something pale and white floated to the surface. He only had to stand up a bit to see they were a jumbled mess of fish bones.

Something _was_ down there….he was going to find out what.

"It was so cool guys, it was like this long body, kind of like a serpent, and, and there was silver on top and on its sides I think, and I—why are you looking at me like that?"

"Danny are you sure you weren't out in the sun too long?" Sam answered with her own question, sucking down her soda.

"Yeah dude, no offense, you're starting to sound like your parents." Sam nodded in agreement as Tucker spoke.

"There's no need for insults—look guys I'm telling the truth, I saw something down there! It ate my fish!" Danny threw his arms out for emphasis, as if trying to explain the sheer size of this thing once more, but as he sat in the booth of the crab shack on the Pier, he was starting to think his friends weren't ready to commit to such fantasies about sea monsters and merpeople yet like he was.

"…you could have seen a trick of the light, especially under that glass." Nope, definitely not ready.

"It was _green_." Danny tried, sounding rather lame to his own ears.

"Seaweed is green. Fish scales can be green. The WATER can look green, Danny. And anything could have eaten that fish, Danny. Or it got under the boat and tore up by the propeller. You did say you didn't hear a noise. Something that big is going to make a splash." The goth girl reasoned, and Danny suddenly felt regret for coming back on land, and for ever going out the first place.

"Nice one Sam." Tucker grinned, reaching for some of Danny's fries. Danny pushed the plate over, leaning his cheek on his palm.

"…I guess you're right." He finally muttered, picking at the table with a fingernail, and letting Tucker finish his burger too.

"Sorry Danny, but the odds of you seeing a clump of moss and some cod are a lot bigger than the odds of seeing a phantom merfish thing."

Danny grunted, and shrugged, and let their conversation wander toward what everyone wanted to see at the theater the next day. It was summer, they could do whatever the hell they wanted.

And so right there in the worn red booth Danny decided to himself he was going to try and prove what he saw, even if it was to only himself.

"_Just like any old fish, Danny, lure it!"_

"According to my Dad, this will work and shouldn't be as stupid as it looks." The teen spoke outloud, a habit he'd admit he'd picked up from his father. He stared out at the line of floating fish he'd strung like popcorn for a Christmas tree (no easy feat, and the cats that hung around the docks almost mauled him) but he'd done it, and hopefully his parents wouldn't notice the 7 or so missing fish from the coolers they kept.

The thin string lead from the small, private rocky grotto round Amity Island then out deeper into the sea, toward the spot the boat had been resting when Danny had first seen that flash of silver. With no boat, getting the fish out into the current was harder than he'd thought, especially since it was twilight and the waters had started calming. He'd done a lot of throwing and cursing, but with any luck he hadn't scared anything off, and would have some results before he froze to death out here.

"…least I can see the fish better." He mumbled, perching on a rock that was sitting in the shallows and checking to make sure the string was safely tied down beside him. He dangled a leg in the water, burying his foot in the sand as he watched it slide against the rocks, trying not to notice the chill or the dark or the way the water was really lulling and soothing like this…

_Plip!_

Danny jerked up and almost off his rock, trying to sit up and grab the string at the same time. The 6th fish had been yanked down and floated back up. But there was something else Danny saw, the aftermath, something crested and sunk back down into the depths.

Something shimmering and green, almost see through.

A _tail_.

Before Danny could get over his excitement about that, there was another little _plip!_ And the 5th fish was snagged down by something, and though it was closer Danny still didn't get to see just what it was trying to drag the fish down

"Come on…" he stayed rooted to the spot, hardly believing his luck when the 4th fish was yanked on and a tail came up after it this time, slapping the water as if in frustration before vanishing with barely a ripple.

And then, all at once, in great motion with a wave, there was something streaking at him and surging up onto his rock and Danny gave a girly little shriek and tumbled back, staring at the torso now perched up on the worn boulder. Arms straightened out and webbed hands gripped the rock, letting the figure lean forward after him as he tried to scrambled up. Frills on the sides of its head flicked up through hanging silver hair and spread out toward him, while green eyes that seemed to glow, stared at him evenly. Lips twisted and its head turned, like it was trying to make its mind up about something.

"…woah…" He breathed. Danny found himself taking a step forward in the sand, transfixed by this creature and wanting to...know more. To get to know it—it was obviously human, those eyes…

By the time Danny realized there were black scales embedded in that tan skin, he heard a rumbling noise, like a growl, and something slap the water in frustration behind it, sending water spraying everywhere.

"Wha—hey wait!" He reached out, this only seemed to disgruntle the guy more, because the white haired guy hissed at him and twisted effortlessly and darted under the water, riding the wave out and back into the ocean with a flick of that long tail.

Danny was rooted to the spot for a long time, and only moved when he realized the string holding the fish had been yanked out and all the fish were gone.


	3. Chapter 3

_**Chapter 3**_

It occurred to Danny the next day that he had no idea what he was doing. But here he was, already in the small coven of rocks and tide pools with the fish string again, this time with bigger ones but fewer. He'd canceled his plans with Sam and Tucker, saying his parents needed him. And he let his parents assume he was still at the theater this afternoon, and Jazz just plain didn't care. He made sure to keep his goggles and snorkel around his neck as he let the line drift out to sea. He wasn't entirely sure how safe he was yet but the creature hadn't attacked him, or dragged him into the depths like all the old tales kept saying they did.

Danny might have listened his to better judgment more if he wasn't so excited and caught up in the prospect of seeing the merkid again. Well, maybe he wasn't a kid, Danny didn't know how exactly how old it (he?) had been, but he _looked_ about Danny's age. Minus the fish stuff he could have passed for human easily, so maybe he was more human than fish, right?

…maybe.

Danny didn't have to wait long, to his luck. Maybe 10 minutes after he'd checked his watch for the 12th time was a surge of water and suddenly the fish started going _plip! Plip!_ And all of a sudden creature was there, grabbing the string and leaning up on the rock again. When he spotted Danny all those fins spread out, Danny wasn't sure it was for intimidation or like when a dog perked its ears at you. Either way would have worked. Intimidation especially, because this thing was…really big with the tail behind him, half in the water and waving slightly.

"…uhm. Hi." Danny managed with a small gesture of his own hand, his own voice suddenly sounding very small.

The creature stared at him suspiciously, watching his hand for a split second before looking him up and down. It wasn't a hungry glare like the last fish, still on the string had received. When Danny realized this he sighed with relief, this was a look of interest and slight startled confusion. Those eyes stayed on his legs for the longest time before raking back up to bore into his challengingly. Danny gulped.

"…So you're uh…half fish, or something. That's cool, I guess my parents are right. Well you don't know my parents but I mean they've been trying to know you, or others like you, a-are there others like you? You're not the like only one right? That's got to be lonely if you are…I know how that feels, well not exactly but…" As the words tumbled unheard from Danny's lips, the merman had sunk his teeth into the last cods scales and tore through flesh and bone, swallowing what it could before discarding the bones and some scales with a careless toss of its webbed hand, which Danny noticed had little claws instead of nails.

Danny noticed this, because suddenly one hand struck the ground before him and gripped hard to drag the creature's body onto the rocks more. He jerked back as the guy followed with surprising ease, using the long fins on its sides to push its scaled lower torso across the ground and propel it forward. The merman craned up and jerked its face inches from Danny's nose. It didn't blink, but inhaled a bit, the sound a touch wheezing as its gills wavered uselessly before flattening shut.

"H-huh? What are you—" The creature leaned forward more and Danny tumbled off his rock and into the wet sand, watching as the creature snorted and dragged after him, stopping when he could grab one of Danny's hands, the one that held the now empty string, and lifted it up by its wrist, giving him an expectant look.

"….oh….oh fish?" The creature gave a long crackling noise with its throat. "No sorry I don't, uhm, that was the last of it….that's all I could get…"

The creature's fins sagged in what looked like mild disappointment when it saw Danny shake his head and let go of his hand, grumbling softly to itself as it started to twist round toward the ocean, its tail still in the surf.

"…c-can you….talk?" He had a feeling he already knew his answer, but hey. Anything to make this guy not leave just yet. As he asked this the merman twisted back on his palms to look at him, making a strange sharp noise in its throat and snapping his teeth.

"…I mean to me." Danny floundered for a moment. "Like words. Like, English…no, no you can't huh…makes sense I guess…" Wondering how detrimental this language barrier was going to be, Danny moved to sit pretzel style on the beach, which opened a whole new can of worms.

The merman snorted in surprise and leaned back, staring at his folded legs. Danny glanced up from his depressed moment.

"…you okay? What are you—oh…my legs?" He sat up and shifted the aforementioned appendages out from under him a little more.

Another long rumbling noise, ending with a soft hiss, that made the boy looked up. The creature's frills flicked and he leaned toward Danny, tilting his head and looking up at him in askance and confusion. The merman rattled his throat again in a complicated series of mumbles and purrs. Danny blinked at him.

"Leeeegs. Legs." Danny had to admit, the way the guy wrinkled his nose as he stared in wonder at his kneecaps was kind of funny, and maybe even a little charming.

Taking a chance, Danny craned forward and reached out his hand out. Seeing the fingers coming the merman stiffened and hissed at him until Danny pulled them back. But all Danny had to do was wiggle his toes and the creature was entranced again, fans on his head flicking this way and that as he rumbled in curiosity. Danny shifted his weight from foot to foot, but didn't take a step or even lift a leg to balance. He had a feeling that'd really confuse the poor guy and he didn't want to scare him away all at once. It occurred to Danny just then, that maybe this creature had only seen humans from under the water, with them high on their boats. Unless he'd seen a simmer, up until now he'd only seen humans with no bottoms, and now suddenly he was getting to. Danny didn't blame his curiosity, since it burned just as bright for the merman a foot away from him. When had they gotten so close? The sun hit those drying scales that speckled the tan skin, and shone faintly.

Agonizingly slowly, Danny shifted till he was resting on his knees, but still hunched over. When his captive audience didn't freak out or flee, Danny moved to stand up carefully, pointing to his legs as his feet sunk into the wet sand.

"…See? Legs. We stand. And…walk and run and stuff. They carry us." He pointed behind the merman, who glanced at his own tail before going back to Danny's legs. "Like your tail moves you. Swim. You know, water?" He pointed to the ocean, which the creature looked at before back up at him, watching him closely.

Just as slow as he had gone, the merman slunk forward and suddenly lifted _up_. With much less grace and a bit of wiggle, he rose up, stretching his tail out for balance behind him. Once he realized he could do that, Danny watched in amazement as the merman rose up level with him, balanced on his fins and holding his arms out for balance like a tight rope walker. He came to about Danny's chest, but it was something and their eyes met again, locking together.

Danny couldn't help it, he felt himself grin. "…cool."

Sharp green eyes looked over his face, and his fins perked at the expression, which he copied as a faint smirk of almost pride when he heard the admiration in the boy's voice. He lowered back along the ground after that, and Danny followed, settling pretzel style in front of him once more. And once more the merman was caught by the maneuver of his legs and leaned down to inspect, but never touch, though he clearly looked like he wanted to.

This time, Danny used the hand that had held the fish string, and went slower. The merman stared at them this time, and though he flattened the frills on his head he didn't quite jerk away or even snarl. Danny made his arm half way out before he realized the merman had lifted his own and holding his out too, slowly. They both got lost, staring at the deceptively simple hands on one and the webbed clawed fingers on the other.

No one noticed how close they'd gotten til their fingertips matched up gently, and they both froze.

Danny marveled at the coolness, the slight clammy and very tough padding of the fingers. He could see tiny little nicks and scars all over that hand, from mussels and rocks and who knows what else down there. The claws looked razor sharp but didn't move to strike him, or move away even. Daring a look at those green eyes again, he realized the merman had been looking at him in much the same way and Danny ached to know what he was thinking about suddenly.

Just as the moment reached the height of understanding and amazement, a boat off shore bellowed its deep blasting call to the inland, startling them both. Danny swung his gaze to the left, so caught up in making sure no one could see them from land or water he didn't noticed the soft pressure leave his fingertips.

When Danny jerked his gaze back from the boat, all he had time to see was the disappearing shimmer of that green tail in the water. The whole thing had lasted maybe 15 minutes, but to Danny it didn't feel long enough.


	4. Chapter 4

_**Chapter 4**_

"Heeey Phannntom…" Danny called out, tossing three small pebbles from his pocket into the ocean in front of the grotto. They made a small, familiar noise—_plip! Plip! Plip!_

With the next lap of water that glided over the worn stone, the merman appeared, rumbling gently as he lifted himself from the surf, watching Danny curiously.

"You hungry?" the human tugged the small cooler into the water and pulled off the top. "Look what I got, some cod, salmon….a tuna I think…" He moved over to let the merman look for himself, fins fanning out and twitching as he sniffed. With a happy, high pitched noise 'Phantom' went head first into the cooler, digging around like he was bobbing for apples.

"Woah, hey!" Danny laughed, moving to sit on his rock as Phantom pulled back with a fish tail hanging from his jaws, he grinned around the fish at Danny and crunched down into the scales, slurping the fish oil off his chin as he gobbled the tuna down.

"…good, right?" Danny had to admire the guy's fearlessness.

The merman gave a long, rumbling murmur and dug back for some more. He certainly didn't seem to be a picky eater, but he did seem to pick out the salmon first and take the most time in knawing and crunching through it.

Danny leaned back on his palms, watching the sea creature clean the fish for a while, before he bucked up his courage. Quietly he sipped his goggles on and his flippers for good measure, before sinking gently into the shallow water and stepping round the merman, trying to get a new look from a different side. With the water up to his shins maybe, Danny slunk round the creature's long spread out body and crouched a bit, examining it.

Let's see…that long fin on top was the dorsal fin, for staying upright. Arms aside, on his lower fish body, though they were now folded tight against him, were pectoral fins. His were thicker than anything Danny had seen before, and must have had some bone and muscle in there somewhere. They didn't just seem to flick, but really seemed to steer him. Phantom suddenly coughed out a fish head, and it landed in the water with a plop. Danny glanced at him, hoping he wouldn't be caught to close and get a whack with that tail. But the merman only stuck his head and a clawing hand back in the cooler and rumbled away, tail waving in the water.

So what if he'd spent all night pouring over his parent's books until the sun rose? This was for _science_.

Quietly Danny craned over as much as he dared, watching the sun hit those luminescent scales and marveling at all the different colors. Fish _outside_…but that tail moved like the flukes off a dolphin so…seriously, wow. The tail itself was well over four feet in length, and all the scales seemed to change color. Danny recalled something he'd read in one of those books, about fish brightening their scales during a fight or trying to get a mate. He'd also read that while some fish spoke with croaks or clicks, they mostly relied on body language. Danny stared at the faded old gold rings round the tail, and realized there were matching ones on Phantom's wrist. Huh. Had Phantom just found these? Or made them? Were there others down there that could make them? These questions and more chased each other in his head as he narrowed his blue eyes, focusing less on the huge merman before him and more on his inner trains of thought.

In fact, Danny was so caught up he didn't even notice Phantom had finished his fish and was spitting out the last of the bones. Food no longer a distraction, he'd become aware of the body right next to his left, and slowly he stiffened, spreading those long pectoral fins. Just as Danny looked over to see this…_challenging_ smirk on the creature's face, Phantom twisted and _lunged_ at him—Danny closed his eyes and flinched, half imagining this to be the end.

Water lapped higher, a great mass passed him and something caught hold off his swim trunks. With a yelp and an ungraceful tangle of limbs Danny was pulled unceremoniously in the water, carried out a bit deeper into the ocean. Instead of being dragged to his death he was abruptly left to fend for himself just below the surface though. His feet left the bottom but he didn't panic, simply righted himself and opened his eyes, staring into the depths.

Suddenly Phantom was three inches from his face, eyes wide and unfazed by the stinging salt water as he stared at Danny. Danny stare at the odd film that appeared to cover those eyes, making them seem to glow under the water. A webbed finger poked his goggles and those frills flicked open. Recognizing the curious look, Danny grinned and pointed to Phantom's own eyes and face. A few bubbles issued from Danny's mouth and nose, and since he was basically floating on the surface he lifted his head up for a proper lungful before diving back down this time. He gave a kick and ventured out and deeper over the small underwater sand dunes. Maybe a few kicks away the ocean got darker and it looked like there was a small decline into a reef, where farther out still he knew was a drop off. Danny paused to look for Phantom, he didn't have to look far, because he surged under him with an effortlessly flick of his tail and swung in a lazy crockscrew, giving Danny an aerial view as one fin folded and opened to allow him the maneuver. Danny treaded water, lifting to the surface a bit as Phantom spun around, spotted him and grinned, darting over. Danny waved and Phantom tried waving back, though he seemed much more interested in Danny's web-less fingers.

Just as Phantom neared him Danny became acutely aware of the tightness of his chest. Glancing at Phantom he pointed up frantically, more bubbles issuing forth. He hoped the merman got the message because Danny could wait no longer, and kicked for the surface. He broke the water and sucked in air with a moan of relief; just as Phantom lifted his head out and gave a questioning mrr at him.

"Air…sorry…hang on Phantom…" Danny held up a finger, the international sign for his words and floated in the ocean, making sure to keep the shore in his view.

"…O-okay, phew, I'm good." He wondered if he was imagining that look of faint concern on the mermans's face. "Let's head back to shore okay? Land? Rocks?" He pointed and started paddling with slow strokes for the grotto's shallow sandy bottom, feeling a different kind of tightness in his chest when Phantom swam after him trustingly.

Danny dropped on shore and lay in the sand, taking a breather. He'd swam farther out than it looked like, huh. Have to be careful about that. He lay on his back, having found the dry sand was really warm around all the rocks and watched the sky for a second, until he heard a scraping noise. He sat up and chuckled as he watched Phantom shoving the water cooler around, watching it bob for a moment and then filling it with water, blinking when it started sinking.

"Careful…I'll need that back buddy." Danny smiled when Phantom turned to look at him. The merman pointed at him, and Danny blinked back.

"…Phantom?" The boy asked without thinking. The merman wiggled onto shore more and stopped before him, long body lying in the lapping waves still. Phantom propped himself on his arms and hummed lazily, watching with fascination as Danny yanked off the flippers and goggles and set them aside.

Phantom made a strange croaking noise and coughed, wrinkling his nose. But it sounded different this time.

"…Phan…tom?" The merman stared back at him quietly, then pointed to him again, but lower—oh…

"My legs?" The merman nodded and then pointed to his own neck. Danny mirrored the action before it dawned on him.

"Neck…Gills—_gills_! I don't have gills, right! Those help you breathe under water, you know? Like, inhale, exhale, inhale." Phantom gave a snort and cocked his head, watching Danny try and elaborate. It took him several minutes and little diagrams drawn in the sand and all, but Danny did his best to pantomime his explanations, all the while the merman watched him with raised eyebrows, blinking a couple times in bemusement.

"…I can't tell if you're getting any of this or if all your hearing is the crazy two legged guy prattle on about stuff." Danny finally deflated and flopped back in the sand. It didn't help that Phantom made a noise vaguely like a snigger and shifted up lie alongside him quietly. One was for certain Phantom certainly read tone very well. After a moment the body was closer, Danny could feel those pectoral fins brushing against swim trunks.

"….what happened to me not being able to touch you?" Danny muttered halfheartedly as he closed his eyes and let sun wash over him, drying him out. The warmth and swim were making him sleepy, and coupled with the face he'd gotten little to no sleep last night, well…he was already feeling kind of groggy.

He heard a faint rumbling mumble, a sort of vacant response he felt. Dimly aware of the situation, Danny felt his left hand lifted from the sand and his fingers moved apart, as they stayed mostly limp in the other hands questioning, inquisitive grasp. Cool fingers prodded and played with his hand lightly, the touches so simple and rather lulling Danny didn't notice he'd fallen asleep or that the sun had nearly set until the cold tide started slinking over him.

"You're late for dinner Danny, where have you been?" It was said so easily, Danny didn't understand why he felt like throwing up or hiding under his bed. He wasn't past curfew but he _had_ forgotten to call—not like you got good reception out in the ocean—so really, they had every right to ask, even though the lackadaisical tone made Danny want to confess right then and there. He slunk by his parents, eyes on the stairs which meant freedom. His mother kissed his cheek and Danny just begged she didn't smell fish on him.

"Danny?"

"Ohhh ah—Sam's! I was at Sam's yep, just hanging out, lost track of the time—" That was true. "We hung out all day and played video games and I just forgot to look at the clock!" That was more certainly not true. "Sorry guys…I'm not very hungry actually, I think I'll just head upstairs and uh, go to bed…"

"Bed? But it's only—"

But Danny had already pounded up the stairs and shut his door.

"…that kid gets stranger every day." Jazz commented blithely without looking up from her book.


	5. Chapter 5

_**Chapter 5**_

It felt like it was by sheer luck his parent's took their boat out the next day across from the grotto. It was in fact habitual, as the Fenton's had a sort of route they followed when try to get a reading. Danny had been 'asked' to come along again for an extra hand, and seeing as he couldn't tell them the real truth about where he'd been the past two days, he found he had no choice. For all they knew he was spending days in the arcade and theater instead of swimming with a merman.

"Now that we've got the radar working son, you're in for a real treat today!" Jack's voice boomed.

"We might actually get a reading of some activity down there!"

Danny bit his lip and didn't say anything. After Phantom, nothing short of a leviathan rising up next to the boat was going impress him. Speaking of Phantom…Danny twisted around, appearing to be on the lookout for anything, when he was in fact making sure to stay out of sight of the glass bottom and at the same time not be seen over the side. This left him either in an awkward cramped position lying on the bench, or where he currently was, standing at the front of the boat by the wheel and console center, next to his mother.

"So uh…what does that stuff tell you again Mom?" He asked, staring at the small glowing shape in the middle of a screen that looked suspiciously like his Dad's head.

"Well right now it's set to show and record any mass bigger than any type of fish, and smaller than a whale, Danny. Since we're not sure of the size of some of these creatures, we're focusing on merpeople today!" Buried in her work she didn't notice her son's rather pale look at the dials.

"Figure if we can just get an idea of how many…we've always thought they lived in schools but now we're wondering if they prefer to live rouge…which reminds did you put the tuna over Jack?"

"Sure did Maddie…over an hour ago. Nothing."

"Tuna?"

"For bait son! Until our traps are fixed—" "_Someone_ got fudge on the padlocks," "—We'll have to live with just seeing if we can get something to show up on the radar. Want to have it natural first of all, see, so we don't scare them off."

"O-oh…okay." There was…no harm in _seeing_ right? Besides as much as his parents spoke about dissecting for science Danny had a feeling deep down once they'd met Phantom or…someone like him they wouldn't be so quick with the scalpels. Right?

"…you uh…did you guys try salmon yet?" He wished his throat would close up.

That earned him some looks. He shrugged sheepishly and suddenly he really couldn't stop talking. "I was just thinking, you guys import it, so maybe it'd be like a delicacy for them, something that stood out from the cod and….tuna…like a new smell to…just…get them close…" He trailed off lamely, and wondered how suspicious he'd look if he jumped overboard.

A long pause—this was it, the jig was up, they knew everything now—and Jack and Maddie shared looks before…shrugging. His mother beamed at him for it.

"Danny look at you! I'm so happy you're taking an interest in our work finally!"

"Yeah, it only took 20 years!"

"Dad…I'm seventeen."

"Oh…right. Anyway help me get the salmon overboard."

It turned out that before getting them in the water the fish were weighted down with small little iron balls to cause them to sink, and were left without a line. Danny made a mental note to make sure he never gave Phantom a fish like this to eat. Despite his parents reassurances otherwise when he voiced some nonobjective opinions, Danny didn't want him to choke. To Danny it felt a little…too open for the dead bait to be able to drift away but he was done giving ideas.

"And now we just…we just wait?"

"Yep!"

Just as Danny was hoping his big mouth was going to be wrong, the screen on the dashboard next to him beeped to life. He glanced at the screen in time to see it was reading almost one hundred feet down, but felt no relief when he saw more beeps.

"Jack! Jack look! Come here!"

Danny moved out of the way of his father's girth, still able to hear the new added beeps as the areas where the salmon had sunk were being filled by…well…

Something _approximately_ human size.

Danny swallowed and sank onto the bench as he listened to his parent's converse about the numbers and what they meant, all the while he watched the glass bottom as they slowly passed over the spots. He couldn't stop his parents from looking too, and while Danny liked to think himself able to spot Phantom out now, he wasn't really sure. What they were sure of was that some big things were down there and they had recorded over six different masses at once.

Was Phantom one of those six? Danny was so worried he couldn't eat his lunch, which was ironically, tuna salad sandwiches.

The rest of the day was uneventful, and for that Danny was relived. His parents were so enraptured with pouring over their notes and maps it was amazingly easy to yell he was going to Sam's as he headed up the stairs to get ready to go back out.

Danny had just finished packing his knapsack and was under the bed looking for a remotely clean tee when his phone buzzed.

Thunk! "Ye—ow!" The teen grabbed his phone from his dresser and glared at it before answering.

"…Hello?"

"_Danny? Hey dude, listen, there's a special showing of Paranormal Activity 3 at the theater, they said it's supposed to be scarier than the second one and just as good as the first, you want to go?"_

"Uh…no thanks Tucker, I mean we were hardly scared the first one, right? And I uh, my parents are making me do some more work here for their research so…I really should help out and stuff."

"Aw…you sure?" He heard a second voice. "No, he says he can't come…his parents, yeah."

Suddenly Sam's voice replaced Tucker's. _"Danny, just tell them you're going to get scared by something __cool__ for once and not water. Sea monsters and stuff, that's not real."_

"Oh and ghosts are?" Danny challenged as he shoved on his sneakers.

"_Well, no but…they're a lot more accessible than in the ocean!"_ Danny bit his lip to keep from saying the grotto was a fifteen minute walk from his house.

"Listen Sam I gotta go, okay?" They wouldn't believe him if they told them. And right now he didn't _want_ anyone but him knowing about Phantom, not yet, maybe not ever. Right now what he and Phantom had was nice and private and pretty cool, Danny thought.

"…_alright, Danny….see ya later."_

"Bye."

He'd apologize later or hang out with them tomorrow, maybe.

But right now Danny shouldered his bag and headed for the door, and for Phantom.

Danny had only to toss in one pebble before Phantom was emerging from the ocean, giving that funny croaking rumble at him when he saw the boy. He had waving down better now, Danny saw as he laughed and waved back.

"Hello yourself…" Phantom actually pulled out of the water and sat up on his tail, eyeing the familiar cooler with those sharp green eyes.

"Uh huh, I'm coming I'm coming… here ya go."

As Phantom tore into the fish Danny took the time to pull on his flippers and goggles. Hopefully with the addition of a snorkel this time he'd get a little farther.

"…I wonder if they'd notice a wetsuit missing…and an oxygen tank…" Danny sighed, and his voice attracted the merman, who was swallowing his last bit of fish and shimmied over to him, reaching up to yank on the snorkel.

"Pft—hold on! I need that Phantom," Danny laughed softly at the inspection and let it go on for a moment.

"…I use that to…sort of breathe." He tried explaining. "See, I put my mouth here, hold your hand here, ready?" He blew into the mouthpiece and watch Phantom crackle in his throat in surprise when air hit his hand.

"It's like…if I can't do this," he made a show of inhaling and exhaling, "Then I'll do this," he coughed theatrically, and Phantom…sort of seemed to get it. It was hard to tell when he stared at you like that. Danny did a few more examples, smiling when Phantom started backing up for the water and looking at him questioningly when Danny didn't follow. This was becoming a fast routine.

As much as Danny was watching Phantom, it seemed Phantom was doing the same the entire time. He'd watch the bubbles Danny'd blew out from the snorkel and he'd watch when the human kicked for the surface. The first few times he darted after him immediately but once Phantom realized Danny kept coming back down, the merman relaxed and was content to wait before moving through the reef again. Unable to talk himself, Danny realized how easier it was to use body language. A smile soothed the merman and a wave of his hand brought him over. A huge display of bubbles made Phantom stop and look up at the surface and then back at him.

On the fifth time down, lungs filled with fresh air, Danny saw a tail that looked like Phantom's vanish behind a rock farther off in the reef. He gave a few kicks toward the merman he did know and caught his eyes, waving. Phantom perked up and moved over with a lazy flick of his fins. When Danny pointed to the rock behind which he'd seen something, the merman cocked his head and shrugged. Danny swam through the reef, watching the sea anemone and the more of the braver fish swim around them. He brushed his fingers over things lightly, understanding fully where Phantom's small bumps and scars came from as he inspected everything.

When he came up for air the next time he stayed a while, taking a breather for a moment. He was surprised when he felt fins brush his leg and Phantom poked his head up next to him, rumbling brightly.

Danny grinned back and blinked when Phantom took his hand and pressed something into it.

"…huh? What's this?" A…rock? A shiny, small stone with a very smooth texture but nevertheless a rock.

"….is this for me?" Danny gestured to himself carefully, still treading water.

Phantom beamed at him and nodded after he saw Danny point to himself and the smooth stone.

"Well, uh, thanks, Phantom…thanks…." There was a long pause, whereas Danny smiled unsurely and Phantom beamed.

"Guess we better head back to shore." Unaware of Phantom watching so closely, Danny slipped the stone into his pocket and started swimming back. He also completely missed Phantom's look of utter glee when he realized Danny had _kept_ his gift.

Danny sank into the warm sand as soon as he was mostly out of the shallows, and smiled to himself when he felt scales brush against his trunks and hip. The familiar rumbling and wheeze noise hit his ears and he let his eyes drop closed slowly.

"…sorry, swimming tires humans out. This is what I get for almost failing gym, I guess." The human smirked tiredly, rolling on his side to see Phantom watching his hand again.

After a moment, Danny murmured "Phantom." Just to see what it would do.

Those frills flicked, and the merman looked up from Danny's hand, watching him expectantly.

"…I can't tell if you're answering at what I keep calling you or just my voice." Danny sighed softly, twisting his lips.

Phantom purred faintly and made that same noise he'd made again yesterday, this time a little stronger, a little…clearer.

"Han…om." Danny blinked and sat up.

"…Phantom?" He didn't realize he was leaning closer and speaking slower, watching the merman watch his lips.

"…fhhaan…"

Danny nodded, eyes widening. "Phan…."

"….fffhan?"

"Tuuum."

"….uhm."

"Ta." Danny opened his lips to show him.

"Taah."

"Good!" He nodded encouragingly. "Phaaan. Ta. Om."

"Phhhan…tum. Phanntum? Ph, _Phantom_!"

"Yes! Phantom! Phantom! You!" He pointed at the merman, feeling ridiculously happy. The merman was beaming at him too, and pointing at himself proudly, frills pricked and tail flopping gleefully.

Suddenly the finger was at him. The merman murred questioningly and when Danny looked at him in confusion the merman spoke a questioning tone of,

"….Phantom?"

"Huh? No, oh," Danny grinned and settled pretzel style. "No, you're Phantom, right, yes, I'm Danny." He pointed to himself. "_Danny_. Daaaan. Eee."

The merman head titled, suddenly their noses in close proximity as Phantom watched Danny's lips move and tried to mirror them.

"Dhhhan…" it ended with a click. Phantom's shoulders dropped as he started looking disheartened.

"No, no it's okay, see? Phantom, you can do this. Danny. Daaan. Eee." He kept his finger pointed at himself, praying the body language would help here.

"…Dahn…Dan…e." The fins on Phantom's head flattened and leaned back.

"Yes!" Danny moved his hands, encouraging Phantom to say it again. "Danny, me!"

"D-Danny!"

"_Yes_!" Without thinking Danny flung his arms around the merman in a hug, forgetting just how important body language was, and how throwing yourself at another merman might not mean the same thing it did to a human. Phantom jerked back at the hold and they went toppling in the surf together, the merman rumbling in confusion and askance as he sat up, hair dripping down his face.

"…pfft…sorry Phantom…" Danny grinned, wiping his bangs from his face.

The merman grinned when he heard his name. "Danny." The two stared at one another before breaking into smiles and eventually laughter. For a long while that's how they stayed, oblivious to the cry of the gulls or the cool water or the setting sun, just enjoying each other's voices and different laughter.


	6. Chapter 6

_**Chapter 6**_

The next day a storm hit. It wasn't so much a storm as it was a mildly perturbed tropical hurricane that roared through the buildings and up heaved the waters, sending boats and those unlucky few out on their boats tumbling about. It lasted most of the day and well into the night, but it was a small petulant child compared to some of the whoppers they had gotten in the past on Amity Island. The Fentons spent the day inside, and when they ventured out the next morning into the aftermath of the storm, they found the S.S. Fentonfisher right side up in her spot, with a dent in her starboard and a small hairline crack in the glass bottom of the boat. The waves had crashed and lashed her about so much, really they were lucky this was the _only_ damage.

As his parents moaned about the time it would take to fix the problems, Danny kept his inner glee silent, relieved Phantom and anyone else out there would be safe for at least a few more days. The boy excused himself, mumbling nondescript sentences about going to see if Sam and Tucker were alright and…took a sharp turn as soon as he hit the beach and headed out of sight, sprinting for the grotto.

Out of breath but still pushing himself, Danny picked up a stone, still running into the shallows more and _threw_ it hard into the ocean, trying not to panic. When nothing but ripples answered him, he threw three more in at once, and just as he was about to yell for the merman, Phantom popped up, grinning.

"…Danny!" He waved.

"P-Phantom! Hi!" He waded out in his jeans and sneakers and all, not caring for the chill, he would worry about that later.

Phantom swam up to him, laughing at him and blinking at his jeans.

"Danny?" He asked questioningly, reaching out to feel the wet and heavy material for himself with inquisitive fingers

"H-huh? Oh, they're pants, Phantom…" Danny said distractedly, letting Phantom do as he please. He found himself lost for words, because now that he stood before Phantom, and Phantom sort of half lay half sat in front of him, he realized the guy was totally _fine_ and Danny had worried for nothing. Of course now it made sense, if any storm got too bad up here Phantom could just dive down below the waves to safety.

…why hadn't Danny thought of that at 2am last night when he was pacing in his room, watching lighting cut the sky? Why had he….been so worried for the merman?

Before he knew it Danny was crouching down in the water to get closer to Phantom, and reached out, putting a hand on his shoulder, meeting Phantom's gaze with a faint, tired smile.

"I'm…glad you're okay."

The merman rumbled curiously and cocked his head, but Danny didn't mind.

The next thing Danny knew he was being handed a…clam shell. Well, half of one. He stared it, turned it over in his hands a few times and brushed his thumb against the smooth pearly inside, before it registered in his tired mind.

"…huh?"

"Danny!" The merman proclaimed, pressing the shell more into the boys free palm with a smile.

"For me?" The merman nodded when Danny pointed to himself. "…uh, thanks Phantom, thanks."

Danny chalked it up to not understanding merman ways just yet, and slipped the shell into his pocket, seeing Phantom's smirk and happy tail flops and chalking it up to the fact he was happy he'd found such a…pretty shiny thing? Even though the ocean was kind of filled with such things but hey, maybe they had some special reasoning known only to Phantom and other merpeople.

Although the following day Danny couldn't make it out, he decided to try and make it up to the merman, and so instead of the cooler Danny walked into the grotto holding a….cardboard box.

Just as the ripple from the first pebble ended, Phantom emerged, crooning the second he saw Danny. Danny couldn't help it, he broke into a grin and perched on the smooth rock, holding the box in his lap.

"Phantom, c'mere!"

The merman all but ran into the rock, and looked over, sniffing the box and looking around. He gave a grabbled noise that sounded vaguely like fish but Danny couldn't be sure.

"No worries, check it out," He lifted the top, grinning at the look on the merman's face when the scent of cheese and bread and a familiar scent hit him. Phantom stared at it, then Danny.

"Pizza!"

The merman blinked at it.

"It's got anchovies, see?" Phantom leaned closer, took a whiff, saw everything and…folded his fins and _hissed_ like a cat, starting to shrink back.

"No, no it's okay, see?" Danny pulled out a slice, cheese hanging in strings off the piece. "I'll uh…eat around the fish I guess, ick…" Phantom watched the boy bite the end lightly and eat it. He grunted in disapproval and wrinkled his nose, even when Danny swallowed it.

"Phantom, come on," Danny laughed as the merman watched him with some concern. "It's pizza, it's _good_. Here…just a little…" He held it out; making sure Phantom saw the anchovies. At that the merman sniffed a bit and leaned over closer, reaching out to bite into it.

By now Danny had learned to listen to Phantom's voices to tell what he thinking, and right now he rumbled curiously and a moment later took a bit. The sauce at first seemed a bit of a mystery but the next thing he knew Danny was looking at an empty hand and Phantom was licking his own.

"…good, right?" Danny asked, and the merman gave a low, long murmur and licked his lips.

5 minutes later Danny stared at the empty pizza box, grease stains all that remained of the medium sized comfort food. Not even a piece of crust left.

"…well jeez." Danny stared and set the box safely out of the oceans reach ontop of his suitcase on another rock.

Phantom sneezed and shook himself, before yawning and dragging himself up onto the rock behind Danny and curling against his back.

"Food coma?"

"Mrhm." Phantom grunted. The merman rested his head on his folded arms on Danny's right and curled his tail against Danny's left leg, his tail trailing in the water. Danny chuckled softly and stayed still, leaning his back against the cool refreshing skin and scales.

"…Danny." Came a faint mumble.

"Yeah?"

Phantom didn't answer, he'd fallen asleep, purring lazily against Danny.

"They're monsters, Maddie, don't worry about it. We get the boat fixed, take the traps next time and we'll have one of those beasts netted and dissected for sure, easy."

"I guess so Jack, I just hate having to wait this long though, or scare them off—Oh, Danny! Sweetie hand me that wrench please…Danny?"

"….h-huh? Oh, here, sorry." Damn, he'd almost made it passed them.

"Thank you! …where are you going? Dinner's almost ready."

"…I'm uh, I'm not hungry." With that Danny continued on his way up the stairs, suddenly wishing he did have the cooler to put away, meaning he never would have had to hear that conversation.


	7. Chapter 7

_**Chapter 7**_

"You ready?" Danny looked over at the merman perched beside him on a rock. His voice was a little muffled from the mask, but the merman whipped up to look at him and grinned, nodding energetically.

"Yes! Danny?"

Danny laughed, "Ready, Phantom."

After nearly a week and a half, they'd gotten down the basics of yes, no, and a few other broken and phrases. Pizza still sounded like pyza but it was close enough. And just as they had worked on Phantom's speech they'd also worked on Danny's swimming, and after the few first times he'd managed to sneak away with an oxygen tank and wet suit. They'd continued learning about each other, about Danny's inability to keep a straight face when watching Phantom eat pizza like it was going out of style, and Phantom's partiality to having his back scratched because he couldn't quite reach the scales there himself, and of course of the wonder of just _enjoying_ someone's company simply because they were near you, not always having to do something. Some days were just spent lying on the sand and dozing, simple because they could.

Now, they could be found on sizzling afternoon as Danny checked his swimming gear one final time. He glanced at his flippers, painted the same color Phantom's tail now in the hopes he'd blend better.

Danny nodded as the merman fidgeted anxiously next to him, fins starting to lift open as he stared restlessly off the rocks and into the deep blue depths. After a final check of his scuba tank, the human leaned over and dived into the water, heading out of the grotto and deep into the reef.

He wasn't surprised when Phantom flew past him, straight as an arrow, before spreading his pectoral fins and twirling in an easy spin to check on the human behind him. He was a better swimmer now but he would never match Phantom's speed and skill in the water. Danny kept his legs together and moved his torso, copying the long undulation Phantom's body went through. Without the flippers he felt (and probably looked) a little stupid, but in full get up like this Danny had realized three days ago that _mimicking_ what he could worked wonders with Phantom—and especially the other merpeople that lived around the reef, who were definitely not as sure of Danny as Phantom was. As he swam with his merman he took note of the others drifting round them lazily, each having their own names from Danny, though they didn't know it since they never came to the surface.

For now, Danny was content to watch Phantom's easy movements; swimming after his friend and watching Phantom flip upside down effortlessly to duck under an overhanging rock. Spotting Danny watching him, Phantom's fins on his head perked and he flicked his tail, ending up before the human.

"Danny, air?" The merman suddenly questioned with bubbly noises, webbed hand settling on his tank. Danny smiled and gave the ok symbol, knowing a thumbs up would tell Phantom to _go_ upward, whereas the ok symbol meant, well, just that. He was fine still. No need to worry.

Phantom nodded and looked like he was about to say something else when a third body sidled up, and Danny turned to see a…rather busty woman with long black hair trailing behind her, almost as long as her tail that had moved under her to balance her out.

She saw Danny and giggled, opening her mouth and…singing short musical tones at him. Danny waved at her in turn, trying not to stare and chuckled inwardly when Phantom whined at him and nudged his shoulder for his attention again, pointing toward a cluster of star fish down below them. Danny waved goodbye to the mermaid he'd called Desiree (after meeting her the first time, Danny sympathized with all those fisherman in the diner that complained of being bewitched to drive their boats into rocks) and followed after his merman. ..his? Well, never mind. It was true enough right?

Danny had just swam down to look at the starfish Phantom was pointing at when something blocked out what little light there was down here, casting them in shady gloom. He looked up in confusion when he saw various colored tails dart out of sight, with the exception of Phantom, who stayed by him. Danny's confusion turned to terror when he saw a familair anchor, a familiar paint job and a very familiar glass bottom. At that Danny swam out of the way too, dragging himself behind a rock and whipping around for Phantom. Had he taken cover somewhere else? Where—

No. Phantom was in fact darting up toward the boat and stopping dead under it, fins fanning out and shoulders tensing. Danny stared in horror as the merman fisted his hands and growled warningly at the moving boat. He swam backward, as if trying to assess the situation.

"_Phantom_!" It sounded more like a blast of bubbles than his name, but Danny didn't care. He'd started pushing himself up from his spot just as something hit his ears.

A sharp, high pitched noise started up, sending faint pulses even Danny could feel. The boat didn't even rock but…all of a sudden it did, as Danny watched his Dad's boots run toward the front of the boat for some reason. Phantom sliced through the water to the other side of the bottom of the boat, giving Danny a look at his face, and he was glaring. It wasn't playful or even livid just a firm, jaw set determined look. His mouth opened and that noise happened a second time as Phantom exhaled, a sharp wailing blast that echoed eerily through the water, hitting the hull of his parent's boat and presumably still going.

Danny almost choked on the air he was trying to breath. He winced and felt only a little relief when the boat turned and slowly headed the way it had come. Phantom turned to him, and Danny simply pointed to the grotto's underwater rocks far off and headed for them, knowing Phantom would follow him.

"What WAS that?" Danny asked, even before he was out of the water, having torn off the oxygen mask and trying to do three things at once. Stop the flow from the tank, stand up in the sand and question the merman that was slinking after him with curious rumbles and purrs.

Phantom looked at him like hed grown a second head, and because he didn't know the word for 'what' yet he said "Danny?"

"I-I mean…that was cool, you've done that before? How did you, why did you…Phantom what was that? The noise? The yeeeee screech…screaming thing noise you just…did." Phantom sniggered when Danny tried to mimic it.

"Danger." Phantom said slowly after a moment. He had learned that word when Danny had gotten his hand cut on a rock. Bad things.

"Pardon?"

"Danger…Phantom," The merman pointed to himself, then the ocean. "Ocean, friends, you, …mine. Phantom keep safe."

Danny itched his nose, hoping Phantom didn't see the blush. "…R-right, right, well, listen my hours up I uh…I better go home Phantom…thanks, you take it easy, okay?" He muttered quickly, gathering his things and groping for his bag. What would Phantom do if he learned he was keeping his home, friends and, and Danny safe from Danny's own parents? Would he get mad at Danny for it? Feel betrayed?

"…Home?" The merman looked at the sun and nodded a little reluctantly. He knew Danny couldn't exactly stay here; though it wasn't for a lack of Phantom's trying the first few nights actually.

"Bye Danny."

Danny couldn't help the smile, forgetting any embarrassment at the earnest expression on his friend's face.

"Bye, Phantom."

After shoving the wet suit and hiding the oxygen tank with some other empty ones, Danny tiptoed upstairs and blinked when he saw his parents at the table, his mom fiddling with a small electrical box. There were some other parts scattered around her, and grilled cheese frying in a skillet as she worked. The part looked like they might have come from the boat.

"…Mom? Dad? You're home early…"

"Oh, hey son. Yeah, well when the radar starts smoking your mother gets all worried about fire and stuff and we, unfortunately, had to turn back." His father muttered, his huge frame sitting sullenly hunched over in his chair.

"The frequency was completely ruined, Jack! It's an old system, that's all. .I think…if I just…fiddle here..whatever was thrown out of whack will…throw itself back into whack."

_So mermaid's voices can make men sort of fall into a trance…does that mean…mer__**man's **__voices do…what Phantom's did to mom's equipment? What the hell did he even do? _

Danny excused himself, and went to go eat in his room. He shoved his bag under his bed, and collapsed at his desk, pulling out the notebook he'd started scribbling things about Phantom he'd learned into. It occurred to Danny, as he munched his food and wrote down the merman's wail and all his thoughts on the matter, that maybe Danny didn't have to worry about Phantom as much as he did.

Maybe the guy was more than capable of taking care of himself, and also the vast reef zone around Amity Island he called home.

Danny made it to the grotto the next day to see Phantom already pulling himself out of the water, waving at him excitedly.

"Danny! Danny, here! Here!"

"Hey Phantom—Phantom! Alright alright I'm coming!" Danny laughed as he hopped down a couple rocks. "Hang on, what's got you so worked up buddy?"

But the merman only pointed toward the ocean, where Danny didn't see anything of excitement personally, and gestured for him to get ready.

"Just give me like, five minutes, here, tuna sandwiches, you love those."

For once the merman took a few bites then abandoned his food, whining anxiously and slapping his tail against the water. Too focused on hurrying for his friend, Danny pulled everything on, and had barely attached his mask before he was tugged into the ocean. Used to Phantom getting overexcited about things, Danny just laughed and let him, wading out and diving into the waters after the merman. Phantom took off, banking sharply toward the right over the reef and past it. Danny paused for a second before following, wondering vaguely what was out here.

It was _deep_ too; soon he couldn't even see the bottom of the sea floor anymore. He ignored his mild anxiousness and focused on the merman swimming effortlessly before him, glancing back every so often as if to check to see if Danny was still there or not. They stayed like this for what felt like ten minutes and just as Danny was about to make Phantom either slow down or tell him what was going on, he swam over a large rock formation and saw it.

His noise of surprised wasn't missed by Phantom, who had dropped speed to match Danny's and was now nodding encouragingly as if to say 'yes, see!?'

Danny stared for a moment at the huge sunken ship, just taking it in. It looked…old. Suddenly he wished he paid more attention in history class, as he observed the broken mast, the half wrecked wooden mermaid smiling blankly up at them. Once this ship had been a might vessel, maybe even one of the best for its time, but now the sea had claimed it due to some accident, and here it sat on the bottom of the sea, alone and dark.

_Now I know where the fork he gave me came from…_ Danny thought to himself, thinking of his…collection of gifts back home he'd stashed under his bed in a box. To date he had four stones, two clam shells, a small pearl and a fork, all given to him by Phantom over the past few days. Each time Danny had paused, and each time he found himself unable to resist at the look of hopefulness until he took it, which was then replaced by a wide grin and little hint of pride, if Danny was going to be honest with himself.

_I guess it's something for show and tell in homeroom. _Danny thought dryly as Phantom swam down to the ship, and he followed a moment later. _I can hear it now, what I did on my summer vacation was…I'll be laughed right out of the classroom. _

Wondering how old this ship was, and unable to see a name, Danny let himself be tugged by the crooning mermaid toward the ship's hull, which had a hole in it the size of a small car. No wonder it sank. There was the creaking of old wood and Phantom's cheerful murmurs, bubbles drifting everywhere. The human and merman stuck close together, exploring the downed ship and forgetting the time as Phantom tried to figure out what the rusted lighting fixture was supposed to do, and Danny spent five minutes laughing his butt off when Phantom got his head stuck in a lampshade. Danny winced when he swam over what looked like partial skeletons in old style clothing, and avoided closed doors, feeling rather gun shy about the dark corner and trying to stick to where the ceiling had fallen away to let in the light from above.

Phantom, oblivious and pretty much fearless, stuck his nose everywhere and in everything, and only growled aggressively once when Danny and an octopus came across each other. The octopus quickly scuttled away when the merman darted in-between it and Danny and spread all his fins, his scales shifting to take on a bright shimmering flare that only made the smaller sea creature hurry along.

Danny was having fun—maybe too much fun. He hadn't noticed his oxygen tank emptying, and he certainly hadn't noticed when the hour he had of air started ending, leaving him breathing less and less.

He _did_ notice when he was trying to swim out of the ship's hole though, and bumped his shoulder. He floated there a second, trying to think about what he'd just done and found his brain just seemed to be...not that quick. Come to think of it…were there less bubbles floating past his eyes? Hah, bubbles was a funny word. There was a pressure on his shoulder, moving him into the ships shadow and into open water, deeper and deeper, but Danny didn't notice Phantom, or the fact he was inexplicably sinking, or the questioning noises the merman was giving him. All he noticed was the tightness in his chest had spread and numbed him, and he couldn't quite keep his eyes open. But he felt calm and at peace and this…this wasn't so bad…right?

Oh no…his tank…Danny looked over his shoulder, then upward. Every movement was sluggish and lazy, and it felt like the hand he was trying to lift toward the surface, toward air, was made of lead.

He was so…sleepy…

Danny's eyes started slipping closed, just as he felt his mask torn from his lips and replaced by—

"Mnpff!" Then suddenly glorious living giving _air_. Danny's eyes flew open; nearly going cross eyed to focus on the merman who currently had his lips pressed firmly against Danny's and was breathing into him. Phantom let the last of air leave him, then pulled back, meeting Danny's hazy eyes anxiously, but it was enough to keep him conscious at least. Seeing this, Phantom perked up and grabbed him by his chest, dragging Danny's mostly unresponsive body into his arms before swimming upward with a powerful wave of his tail.

They broke the surface just as Danny felt lightheaded again, at both the speed and lack of oxygen. He came up sucking in air and started coughing harshly, gripping the only thing he had to, out here in the middle of the ocean, clutching at Phantom with shaking hands and letting the merman support him.

"Pha—" Danny coughed, "Phantom, land….we need…land, P-Phantom," He gasped hoarsely, hoping the merman would understand where he was trying to point, toward Amity Island. It was currently a medium sized bump on the horizon.

The next Danny knew he was being moved, held over Phantom's shoulders and his arms slung loosely around the merman's neck. Half on his back like this, Danny let his face drop against the back of that gilled neck and coughed softly, moaning as he felt Phantom's body rising up and down below him. He was swimming strongly like he didn't even have a passenger at all, and said passenger just mumbled his thanks weakly and let his eyes drop close, focusing on just breathing in and out until he could think straight again.

By the time Amity had doubled in size, Danny realized the back he was pressed against, despite being mottled with little black scales, was cool and clammy but not…disgusting. In fact it felt nice and, and familiar and secure. This was the same body he'd leaned against when they were napping in the sun, the same skin he'd buffed a handful of sand against to get the dead scales off when Phantom started growing new ones in.

_Right…and he…he __**kissed**__ me._ Another wrack of coughs reminded him the reason behind the impromptu kiss but it was a kiss nonetheless! Danny was suddenly very glad he was back here, Phantom couldn't see his blush. _Just because a kiss means something to me, doesn't mean it means the same thing to Phantom. Remember the first time you hugged him?_

Danny went scarlet more and buried his nose in that stringy white hair, earning a rumble of concern from Phantom. Danny mustered his strength and patted that bumpy shoulder, and after a moment felt the swaying sensation as Phantom's tail cut through the water, propelling them toward shore with efficient, steady motions.

_Phantom did that just to save me right? Still, at least he did save me and not…let me drown. Not like he ever would but still. It'd be just my luck to fall for a __guy__, that's also not even my same species. As if I didn't have enough to worry about… _

Swimming like this, with Phantom doing the swimming really, was more than a little lulling.

_Phantom couldn't…care about me THAT much…_

He must have blacked out, either that or a very dark blanket fell over his eyes, because the next thing Danny opened his eyes to was blue sky, clouds and a gull here or there, high up. HEAT was all he felt on his back, and the gritty bedding of sand as he laid there clung to his slowly drying suit, skin and hair. Someone had removed his goggled, tanks and flippers, and that someone was also pressed against his side, Danny could hear that funny breathing noise Phantom did above water.

"…Phantom…" He was mumbling the merman's name like a prayer before he even realized it. "Phan…where?" For good measure he lifted his hand from his side, relaxing when cool fingers matched his own fingertips and a purring noise met his ear.

"Land, Danny." Came that low, warm voice, and Danny closed his eyes, sighing softly. It could have been his imagination, but maybe a hand pushed his bangs out of his face as he rested there.

"…thanks Phantom."

Phantom just murred happily, and stayed stretched out on his side around Danny, shielding him against the wind quietly as he watched over the boy.


	8. Chapter 8

_**Chapter 8 **_

If you asked Danny what possessed him to do what he did the following morning, he wouldn't have had an answer for you. Heck, he didn't really even have an answer for himself, one minute he was poking his waffles, and the next he was looking up at his mother and blurting out,

"Mom? How do you fish find a mate?"

She was still working at the kitchen table on parts of the boat equipment, and the question actually made her pause, pull back her screwdriver and give him a look through her protective goggles. He tried to meet her eyes as nonchalantly as possible, giving an innocent blink for good measure as if to say what? It was just a question.

"What was that sweetie?" She'd heard him, but that was the tone of voice she used when she wanted to hear something again, to make sure what _she_ was hearing was correct, that she wasn't crazy. Danny didn't blame her. So he repeated it again and this time slapped on a ramble of,

"Well, you see uh, yesterday Sam asked me, and I didn't know and I just remembered to ask you this morning, cause it uh, you know she said your work really interested her…"

Maddie blinked, but seemed to believe it anyway. "Oh, well, I always said she was a sweet girl. Now, fish don't really mate sweetie, the females drop their eggs on the bottom and the males come along to fertilize after." She went on cheerfully, and Danny had to admit the look on Jazz's face as she pushed her bowl of Kix away from her was worth this question, even if his heart did sort of drop at the knowledge.

"So they don't like, give each other presents or anything." He tried one last time, taking a bite of his breakfast and ignoring the dry taste all of a sudden.

"Presents..? Where ever did you hear that?" She'd already gone back to work, and answered him vacantly.

"Oh, it was uh, Sam's idea." He lied quietly.

"…No-oo, they don't, Danny."

"Oh…okay. Thanks, Mom."

That earned him a rather suspicious look from his sister, but he was too busy throwing out the rest of his waffle and trudging upstairs to notice.

It was a dumb idea anyway, Danny supposed as he walked with slow steps down the beach. Who'd want to mate like him after all? Least of all…_Phantom_. The really handsome, really bright merman who could do whatever he wanted down there. Danny couldn't get a date to prom and here was Phantom with his muscle-y chest from swimming and his green eyes and his smile and…Hell, he probably gave that stuff he found to everyone, even the hulking merman Skulker, for all Danny knew. What Phantom did when Danny wasn't tagging after him was his own business, and he probably enjoyed it better than having to babysit a silly little human, right? A dumb, stupid human who couldn't even remember to check his own oxygen tank and almost drowned on him.

Danny took so long getting to the beach he ended up being late, but he didn't care. He also failed to detect the two people jogging up to him until their voices hit him right by his ear and snapped him out of his funk.

"Danny!"

"Gyah!" His oxygen tank and flippers went crashing to the sand and he whipped his head up to stare, much like a deer in the headlights, at his two best friends.

Oh crap.

"Danny, what the hell man? We've been calling you ever since you rounded that last corner!" Tucker whined, trying to catch his balance in the sand.

"Where are you even _going_?" Sam demanded. "I thought you had to help your parents today. Again." Her tone dropped as she semi-glared at him. Out of the both of them, Danny knew right then that Sam knew something big was up. And he wasn't sharing it with them and well, they were probably a little bit upset. The other problem was they had every right to be upset. Danny supposed he couldn't blame them…it wasn't like THEY knew about his...his friend. All he'd done was sort of skip out on them and make excuse after excuse about how he couldn't do this or it was a bad time for that.

All good things must come to and end, he supposed.

"I uh, well you see I was going swimming a lot and…" He trailed off lamely, taking a few steps back into the shallows without meaning to. He didn't want to lie, he wasn't sure he could anymore. But all of a sudden he did really want Phantom. He glanced over his shoulder—but Phantom wasn't here yet. He did tend to wait for a pebble to break the surface over the reef after all. And maybe now wasn't the time, maybe he should try explaining—

"You hate swimming!" Sam snapped as Danny started picking his things up.

"Yeah man, what gives? Wait...have you been lying to your parents _and_ us? For like the past two weeks? Just for what, a look at some starfish and coral?" Tucker questioned, also raising an eyebrow.

"No! Well, kinda…look I was going to tell you but I just, it slipped my mind—" He did kind of almost die yesterday. And realize he was possibly in love with his rescuer all at the same time. That's a lot to take in and Danny wasn't sure if he'd figured it all out yet.

"Oh, so glad your best friends slipped your mind, Danny, nice."

"Hey for your information I didn't do it on purpose okay—"

Two things happened. One, Tucker blinked and focused on something over Danny's shoulder, squinting to try and get a better look.

Two, Sam stomped forward and punched Danny's shoulder, like he always did when he screwed up, just as Tucker went "What's that—"

Danny rubbed his shoulder and opened his mouth to retaliate at the goth girl, only for an angry shriek to cut him off and the sound of something moving very fast through the water surge up behind him. Sam's eyes widened in actual horror and Tucker's mirrored hers. Danny's eyes widened.

"Danny! Get down!" He was yanked by Sam before he could protest, and all three of them went tumbling back, as Phantom dragged himself forward, screeching angrily at Sam and Tucker. Once he was within range he sat up on his tail out of the water, flaring all his fins in intimidation and only Danny, who wasn't scared except for maybe his friend's lives, scrambled up and between them, holding his hands out to stop them all. Sam and Tucker from running, and Phantom from attacking.

"No, no it's okay! It's okay!" Phantom jerked his head and swayed on his tail, motioning for Danny to get out of his way, his claws flexing. He didn't physically remove him though, as he could have easily done with a swat of one claw.

"Phantom, stop—it's _okay_," Danny continued slowly, gently as he could muster. "You're fine. They're my friends." He murmured firmly, meeting those glowing green eyes, ignoring the long threatening rumbles. For a moment that felt like an eternity, no one moved, Danny wasn't sure he breathed. All he knew was he and Phantom locked eyes and he tried to give Phantom the most desperate, pleading ones he could, silently begging to NOT hurt them or worse.

At that Phantom folded his frills and slunk back to the shallows, but still leaned around Dannys legs and cackled lowly at them, teeth beared. He watched every movement from his propped up position of his arms, and pressed his neck against Danny's kneecap, the highest he could reach like this.

"…what—" Sam started.

"Is **that**." Tucker finished with a breath, clutching his heart still. Danny felt himself bristle despite it all, and he leaned over to semi hold Phantom back and for an ounce of comfort.

"He's not a that, okay, you just, just startled him is all—I don't think he's ever even seen another human waist down besides m-me so…" His friends both shakily got to their feet and took a step back when Phantom growled at them for it.

"_Him_?" Sam asked, narrowing her eyes to look at Danny.

"Danny that's a…"

"Uh, Phantom? Meet Sam," He pointed carefully, making sure the merman was paying attention to him. "And Tucker. Sam? Tucker? Meet Phantom."

Phantom hissed like an angry tom cat and half flared his fins, tail sending spray everywhere as he curled an arm around Danny's legs.

There was a long pause and then—

"Oh my god is he trying to protect you? From us?" Sam suddenly asked, blinking a bit.

"W-what? Oh, no, maybe…"

Suddenly Sam was smirking. Danny really hated that smirked, because it usually meant something bad for him and Tucker. This time it only meant bad news for him, because suddenly she was stepping forward and made a move to grab his wrist, presumably to pull him out of the water.

The response was phenomenal, and hilarious to anyone who wasn't Danny or Phantom. Phantom promptly gave an indignant screech and yanked Danny into the water and onto the smooth rock he normally sat. Except this time he was lying face down on it and a weight settled on top of him, feel his back vibrating from all the growls Phantom was giving the two strangers.

"Dude he IS." They looked less scared and more amused at that, which only made Phantom hiss more, still denying them all no matter what they did. They weren't getting Danny, not on his watch.

"…lovely. Thanks, Sam." Danny muttered from his cold, wet spot under the merman's bulk. Phantom's arms were over his shoulders and Danny craned his head to see what the fins were doing and yep—flared out at big as Phantom could make them and his scales were changing color.

"Don't look at us Danny." Sam said blithely. "We're not the ones who befriended a mythical creature that our parents have been hunting their whole life."

At that Danny sighed and deflated, causing Phantom to spare him a concerned look and murmur a soft "Danny?"

"He can TALK!?" Tucker yelped.

"H'mine!" Phantom switched right back to offensive mode at that noise, but Danny just nodded and tried to wiggle free.

"Please…Phantom let me up…Come on…move your big scaly butt," He moaned wearily. "Sam…Tucker…could you just take a step back and Sam _don't_ grab me again, okay? He's jumpy enough."

Finally, after Sam and Tucker promised to make no more sudden moves, and Phantom more or less agreed not to eviscerate anyone, Danny was sitting crossed legged on the flat rock and Sam and Tucker on the water's edge, watching in bemusement as Phantom clambered up behind Danny, curled his long body around the boy's back and nudged under his arm, resting his chin on Danny's leg.

Danny smiled softly at gesture and moved to pat a speckled shoulder without thinking.

"You hungry Phantom?" He asked, trying to gain some sort of control of the situation, feeling relief when Phantom perked up and grinned. When Phantom was really upset not even food could distract him. He must have been calming down slowly.

"…no wonder he keeps coming back, dude, you feed him."

Danny shot Tucker an empty glare and grabbed his book bag, digging through it to give Phantom the three tuna sandwiches he'd made. The merman tore into them with his usual wild abandon, watching the two interlopers warily.

"…so what are you going to do now?" There was no teasing tone anymore, and Danny was glad of that. He lifted his sheepish gaze from the merman half in his lap and shrugged at them.

"Good question. I mean…once summer ends, and winter comes, I just don't know. And trying to keep him a secret from mom and dad, they're bound to notice the oxygen tanks sooner or later…"

"Not to mention the food." Tucker commented, watching Phantom start on the final sandwich with no in-between, already taking several huge bites.

"Yeah. I mean…if they find him?"

"Dude, your parents are gonna want to study him then hang him over the mantel. Maybe not even in that order." Danny couldn't even argue at such an accusation, so he didn't bother.

"Thank you, for that image." Danny snarked, giving them both a look. Phantom's nose wrinkled and he simply leaned against Danny more, heaving a huge sigh and bumping against Danny til he scratched a bronze and black shoulder again.

"…would you stop looking at me like that? He's just…their different from us, okay?"

"Not so different." Sam said wryly, earning another look from Danny as Phantom's eye slid closed and he started humming in pleasure. Danny blushed.

In the end, Danny didn't have time to go swimming, but he supposed that was okay. Sam and Tucker, despite the little mishap earlier, weren't going to up and tell his parents. They promised not to tell anyone, for that matter, and though Phantom snarled for good measure Danny knew it was because they were just being the best friends they were. It took a while to persuade _Phantom _though that he would be fine with them, and though Sam and Tuck apologized he didn't look entirely convinced, but he let Danny go, rumbling his good byes as the humans left for their homes.

**oOo**

After that little ordeal, Danny arrived to the little private beach a touch earlier than usual, very much alone and pulling his gear on before the first pebble landed in the water. Phantom shoved his head out of the water and called happily to him.

"Danny!"

"Hey Phantom! I brought you pizza again, here ya go."

"Pyza!" The merman laughed, back to his normal self once he was sure Danny was alone this time. Phantom surged into the shallows and chowed down. He licked the last bit of sauce off his finger just as Danny attached his oxygen mask and walked carefully out toward the reef.

"Ready?"

Phantom nodded eagerly and took off after him with a stroke of his tail.

There was nothing unusual or wondrous about this dive, with the exception that half way through a shrill _beep beep!_ came from Danny's wrist and got the attention of Phantom and some of the other merpeople around them. Danny learned quickly the only one more curious than Phantom was the smaller mermaid that had the same color hair and eyes as him, and who Danny realized a while ago must be his little sister or something. She was smaller and rounder, and though Danny had no clue as to ages he'd guess she was about 13.

When they'd first met she'd swim after Danny like a puppy, trying to figure him out all in go and in the end he ended up jokingly calling her Dani, because Phantom had taught her his name, and it was all she'd say, grinning and giggling and trying to tackle him playfully.

So when the watch's timer went off on his wrist, Dani and Phantom were the first ones to try and see what it was. This was done by yanking Danny's wrist one way, then the other, and then back to Dani, who stuck her tongue out at her big brother and went to tapping the face of the clock.

Danny laughed behind his mask, best he could, and pointed up for them both.

"It's a watch."

Phantom tried to say the word; Dani just wrinkled her nose and kept tapping it.

"It's so I remember to come up for air in 15 minutes, because the tank will be empty. And I don't really feel like drowning again." _As much as kissing you again Phantom would be really nice, I don't want it to be because you feel obligated to save my life. That's not too much to ask, right? _

Phantom mumbled something and nodding, understanding dawning on him when he saw Danny point to the sun, their own type of watch, and his tank and his mouth in turn. Phantom explained to his little sister in their own language as the three of them went back under the waves.

Danny noticed the rest of the time Phantom kept watching his wrist, and if Danny didn't know better he'd say the merman was reading it. But Phantom couldn't tell time certainly, so there must have been something else about it.

…_maybe cause the sun keeps glaring off it?_

After their swim Danny took a few minutes extra packing up, making sure to leave the watch on a rock for a second. When he turned around to say goodbye Phantom was watching it again, like it held all the worlds secrets. Danny couldn't help it, it was kind of cute. Suddenly he was reminded of the box under his bed containing the 'treasures' Phantom gave him, and felt a strange tension in his stomach. Phantom had…given him those things from the bottom of his heart. How did that saying go, all that glitters is not gold?

"Phantom?" The merman blinked and looked up at him, mrring questioningly as Danny took the watch and leaned over.

"Let me see your hand?" Phantom stared blankly at him.

Danny chuckled and held his own hand out, causing Phantom to brighten up and reach out to match their fingertips like they'd done when they first met. The merman smiled brightly at the touch and missed Danny's slightly sad smile for a split second.

This time Danny pulled back and carefully put the watch around the merman's wrist.

"…there. Doesn't seem fair you give me all this cool stuff and I, I just give you food, right?" The human muttered, hoping his embarrassment didn't come across too obvious.

But Phantom didn't notice, he was too busy staring at the watch and marveling at it, inspecting every bit of it he could. Danny sat on the rock and watched him fondly for a while, before the sun started setting.

"Danny…home?" Phantom leaned up to question when he noticed Danny shivering slightly.

"Huh? Oh, yeah, I guess I should go huh…" The human sighed, getting up slowly and jumping to dry land. "…bye, Phantom."

"Bye Danny!" Phantom called cheerfully.

Once Danny was out of sight the merman bounded into the deep waters and went to go show off his gift to anyone who'd look.

A gift from _his_ human, now. His. Danny gift had just proved it after all, that he reciprocated Phantom's feeling and clearly wanted to be his partner.


	9. Chapter 9

_**Chapter 9 **_

Nothing lasts forever. Particularly good things, which always seem to end a lot quicker than the bad things. So when Danny came downstairs one morning and saw a strange man sitting next to his mother and talking smoothly with her about their.._research_…Danny felt something vile in the pit of his stomach, like he'd tried to swallow one of Phantom's fish whole. He also felt vaguely that this was a sign that maybe, possibly, the good times were ending.

He wondered where his dad was. Or Jazz.

And mostly Danny wondered why the guy was suddenly looking at him in that creepy way.

"Why hello, sorry, we might have been a little too loud." His mother turned around from her work when the guy addressed him, but Danny felt little relief. She looked at ease and happy, like when they had company. Except Danny was of the personal opinion this guy was only good company to a gargoyle. He had the sneering smirk of one anyway.

"Oh it's uh, no problem I was just on my way out…" He decided against breakfast and poured a small glass of juice, nearly dropping the carton and glass twice each. Smooth, Fenton.

"Again, Danny?" His mother tsked idily. "I know this is your summer vacation but you've been spending all your time with Sam and Tucker. What are you three even doing at the beach?" At the last idle question Danny choked on his orange juice, holding his wince when he saw only the man was watching him again. So Danny did what he did very well in his opinion, he feigned stupidity.

"B-beach?"

"Don't think I haven't noticed all the sand in your clothes mister, and the way you come home smelling like salt water. And that pretty shell that went through the wash. Oh it's so cute Vlad," Apparently she was addressing the man because he turned back to look and give that cheesy smile at her. "He keeps asking me all these questions about sea creatures, particularly mer—"

"AHKAY," Everyone turned to look at Danny as he raised his voice and proclaimed loudly, "I gotta go—Sam and Tucker are waiting for me bye mom!" He was out the door and slamming it behind him before another word could be said, and when he passed his Dad working outside in the garage he made it a point that Mom wanted to see him right away, really badly.

Well, at least he hadn't lied this time. Not entirely anyway, because the first thing Danny did do was text his friends, then head for the NastyBurger, find a nice private booth to sit in and wait for Sam and Tucker to show up.

When they did they took one look at his bouncing knee and fiddling hands and shared looks before simply sitting down and asking what was wrong. Danny explained best as he could, wondering why he suddenly sounded paranoid and dumb. It sounded so much more dramatic and slightly scary in his head, after all.

"…and I don't know, he just gives me the creeps okay? You shoulda seen the way he was looking at my mom while they talked…about that merpeople stuff." Danny finished quietly.

"And you left her alone with him?" Sam asked as she watched Danny pull apart a napkin. When Danny got nervous, Danny fiddled and tended to accidentally take apart things.

"Please, my mom could break him in half, but it's not his actions I'm worried about. They seemed…like old friends and what if they start talking?"

"Danny, you make it sound like your mom knows everything about Ph—" Danny shushed Tucker with a glare. "…about your pet fish." The techno geek finished instead with a look.

Danny rolled his eyes at the title and glanced out the window. "Well she knew I've been at the beach this whole time. She just thinks it's with you two."

"With us? What, does she think we spend the day looking at rocks and water?"

"…it's not that bad." Danny pointed out with a shrug of his shoulders, and a faint blush he didn't seem to notice.

"Not to you, but then you've got your _friend_ hanging off your every word." Sam said with that smirk again, and Danny felt vaguely like he was missing something. "You're worrying too much Danny, that's all."

"I guess…"

"Just tell your pet fish to lay low, or better yet not see him for a few days." Tucker said dismissively, pulling out his PDA.

"…" The silence and the way those blue eyes flicked quietly to the right spoke volumes.

"That hard, huh?" Sam asked, leaning her palm on one cheek to smirk at Danny when he looked like that.

"Dude you've got it bad." Said Tucker sagely.

"Got what bad? I haven't got anything—" Danny tried, but the look on their faces told him he was fighting a losing battle.

"Except a merman courting you."

"Sam! Keep your voice down—and he's _not_ c-courting me, okay? He's just…erh…is my friend and…my really good friend."

"Uhuh. You forgot protective as all get out? Drapes himself all over you? Giving you little gifts? Which reminds me, weren't you wearing a watch yesterday?"

Danny put his head in his folded arms and moaned. His friends just chuckled and let him be after that.

"Are you going to go see him? After this I mean." Sam finally started up again, and her serious tone made the black haired boy raise his head wearily from his folded arms to look at her.

Danny nodded. "At least to let him know. Not that he will understand if I'm gone for a few days but I doubt he'll miss me. He isn't courting me, okay? …I'm a loser, remember? And it's probably more noticeable to him, I can't even swim properly. Look at me I'm not even a good human, hat just makes me a worse…merman. I'm probably a joke."

"You don't know that."

"No, but I can understand it, if I am."

**oOo**

After that the conversation dwindled, and Danny excused himself to go see Phantom. He hadn't slept well again last night, and the running around was getting old. He just…he wanted to see his other best friend. Who was most likely not trying to court him, or anything like that. When Danny trudged down to the grotto, he wasn't surprised to find it deserted. He picked up some pebbles and threw them in anyway, as a harsh wind blew. He tugged his hoodie round himself more, and decided it was way too cold to swim. Even if it was, the water was probably warmer than the air in the shallows, and then he'd never want to leave.

Phantom poked his head out suddenly and waved, and Dani did too, following after her big brother.

Despite himself, Danny smiled and felt his body relax, sitting down before the waves ended as he watched Phantom pull himself onto the sand. He had to stop and help Dani, who was doing her best but arguably wasn't as adept at crawling on land as Phantom was.

"Heeey guys."

"Danny!" The mermaid giggled and landed in his lap, grinning up at him. Danny blushed and patted her shoulder. She was cute and had a impish grin vaguely like Phantom but…well she was a mermaid. Clothes weren't kind of a big deal. Or any deal at all.

"…right…you uh…h-hi…clothes…erh…" The slightly brisk wind coasted over them again, and Danny was too busy noticing Dani's shivers to see the slight frown on Phantom's face as he watched from behind, curling round Danny's back like usual.

"Here, Dani?" At the sound of her name she smiled at him and watched as he pulled off his hoodie and handed it over to her. She blinked at it, then up at him.

"Right…you probably don't even know how to wear…here, let me show you…put your arm here, good! And your other arm through that and...there! See? Hopefully it's warm enough…" Judging by the look of utter glee the tiny mermaid gave him as she snuggled down in the zipped hoodie, it was. Danny turned when Phantom crackled at him, settling in the sand with a humph.

"And hello to you too mister. What's eating you?" Danny asked with some mild concern, leaning back against that huge body. "Cause I don't have any food today?"

"Danny." Mumbled Phantom after a moment, picking up on the tone.

"…I wish you knew more words sometimes buddy." Danny murmured, thinking Phantom was just saying his name for lack of any other descriptive words to explain his sudden gloomy mood.

"Maybe it's the weather. Looks like we're gonna get rain soon." Danny commented softly, staring up at the gray clouds that had spent the whole day over the island.

Phantom just shrugged. Dani traced circles in the sand next the human's left and pretended she wasn't watching the two, especially her jealous big brother. For his part, tired from all his worry and paranoia, Danny let himself relax against the merman and watched the sky, listening to the waves and Phantom's faint, whisping breathing noise coming just under his head as the merman exhaled and inhaled.

_I can't ask with Dani here…and honestly I don't even know what it is I'm asking. Besides…what we have now isn't so bad. Better to not test the waters, right? Hah. …I don't want…to lose Phantom for good._

Danny dozed off, thinking about that. And because of that, he missed the way Phantom curled around him when he gave a small tremble at the cold.

**oOo**

Dani, meanwhile, had had her fun and decided her brother sulking the entire time his human was here would only serve to make him moodier. Because once Danny left when the white ball of light came up, Phantom would slink under the ocean and become a restless, anxious dork the whole time. A few nights he missed sleep altogether. The wrap thing around her body was nice and warm, and as thoughtful as it was of the two legged, she knew it wasn't given with any deeper meaning than Danny's wellbeing for her concern. She could tell. He was kinda sweet like that, she'd give him that.

And he was a good mate for her brother, she'd decided a while ago. He was kind and eager to learn and surprisingly kept up with Phantom rather well.

That still didn't mean she wouldn't take great perverse pleasure out of making Phantom's life hell, because it was clear from day one the human was absolutely clueless on these matters. Heck, most of the single females in their cluster at one point in time expressed interest in Phantom, and even some of the males. Phantom just never reciprocated. Everyone assumed Phantom was too picky to find a mate. So it was more than a little hilarious when he tried courting this scrawny human, who needed help swimming of all things. Even if everyone _else_ noticed he was head over tail for Danny, it didn't mean Danny knew it, nor did it mean Phantom was brave enough to try and figure out any other way to TELL Danny other than the usual scale show and giving him small gifts. Which Danny clearly didn't understand, Dani realized, because he didn't have scales. So how would he know what to do? She wondered why she was the only one who got the brains in their family, honestly Phantom.

Phantom's signals apparently weren't getting through. Well...considering the human was sleeping quietly against Phantom's side like it was no big deal, maybe it was working but not well enough. She lifted her gaze from the swirls she was drawing in the dry sand and asked Phantom, in their own language, if he still had the blue thing Danny had given him.

Phantom raised an eyebrow, glancing at the sleeping boy and answered, more or less, a simple 'duh.' He raised his wrist to show her for good measure. Since it'd be terribly annoying to read the varying strings of noises the merfolk communicated by, allow me to translate. (It's also much easier than figuring out how to type in merfolk speech, and if you yourself can read or speak it, congratulations, you're probably one of those people who know geometry very well too but are never going to use it in your life.) For those normal folk that _can't_, here you are.

Dani giggled and said, "Just checking….He's asleep, big bro. Guess I'll leave you too love fish alone then."

"We're not-!" The merman spluttered. "…we're not that, Dani…where are you going?" Phantom muttered back, lowering his voice when his human shifted a bit. Phantom draped his tail over Danny's funny looking fins and the human settled at the gesture with a turn of his head.

"Uh, home, duh? You two kind of are. Not for a lack of you trying, either right? You should be more direct. Ember says she's seen humans kissing, and that comes after all the gifts and stuff, if you wanna do it right."

"…of course I want to do it right…but he's asleep."

"You can make excuses all you want, or you can pucker up, brother. Either way I gotta go…and I'm taking your mate's _gift_ with me!" Well that was worth the look on Phantom's face. She giggled and shoved into the shallows. "Bye!"

"He's not my mate!"

**oOo**

A splash was all that answered him, and the merman just sighed and went back to watching Danny curled up against him.

He took a moment to remind himself the proper motions, and then spoke in English, "Danny?" and gently leaned down to nuzzle their cheeks together, the act unconscious.

No response. He hadn't spoken all that soft either, Danny must have really been tired. Phantom swallowed and shifted more, testing the waters as he shifted the body till Danny was lying on his back in the sand. Gently Phantom stretched out beside him, propping himself on his elbows to watch over the sleeping human. Danny murmured something in his sleep and tilted his head toward Phantom's shoulder, which was pressed against his left side. He didn't appear to be waking up so much as he was just moving toward Phantom's warmth. Phantom smiled faintly and spread a fin over Danny's stomach, shielding him better from the breeze. This was…nice. It made him more than a little happy to know he could protect Danny like this, if only from the wind, and not only that, but that Danny trusted him like this. In Phantom's world, you didn't sleep unguarded like this except around your family or your mate if you had one.

Phantom realized too late he'd made the mistake of staring at Danny's sleeping face, which ordinarily that doesn't sound like a bad thing. But when all you want to do is be as close to the owner of that face as possible, to hold and kiss and do more than all that, it was more than a little distracting. He didn't notice he was leaning closer till their noses almost bumped. Phantom halted and his eyes widened—but he didn't quite pull away. Not yet. Danny was still sleeping. The merman became acutely aware of soft puffs of air hitting his skin, just as he moved his gaze to those paler lips. Phantom could recall when he had to share breathe for Danny, when they explored that human mover that had entered his domain. That had been…very nice.

He allowed a hand to comb through that shaggy black hair, brushing Danny's bangs back as his eyes lowered and his tilted his head. Phantom marveled at the softness of his hair for a second, and then let the thoughts be overridden by those lips again, the small part in the middle as Dann breathed through them as he slept. Phantom craned his head down more…almost but not quite matching…them…until all of sudden they were, and the merman's normally sharp mind went blank.

Well it was certainly a kiss, that much was true. It had lips and touching and soft and Danny's lips were rather warm and oh great Neptune why hadn't Phantom done this _earlier_!? And despite the other party being asleep for it, it was a nice joint effort sort of kiss. Danny mmed faintly in his sleep when Phantom pulled back, watching him anxiously for any sign he'd been caught.

No…so then, feeling brave, Phantom leaned down for another, taking the time to focus on the kissing instead of the dread feeling of what to do if his human woke up. But this was one shorter, because as they kissed the wind blew again and the pale boy in his arms trembled a tiny bit before Danny promptly pressed against his own long body, inadvertently pushing their lips together firmer. Phantom pulled back in slightly surprise, fearing Danny had woken up.

But the human just scrunched his nose and rolled over, curling an arm around Phantom's waist, and pressing into his stomach. Once Phantom dared to breathe again, it was to sigh in slight depression. He leaned down and spared a final kiss, in that black mop this time. His fingers wandered back through it and Phantom kept that absentminded petting up until he had to wake his human up.

It was just a kiss. Just a harmless little kiss.

Right.

**oOo**

By the time Danny blinked groggily to life, the sun was nearly setting, and he failed to notice Phantom's unusual quietness. He couldn't stay long to figure it out even if he did notice, because the gray and twilight had mixed to create a chilling atmosphere that made him dimly regret giving Dani his hoodie. Phantom urged him 'home' the minute Danny gave a tiny sneeze. Danny was more than a little chilly by the time he reached his front door, pulling it open with pale fingers and quietly shuffling in.

"Mom? Dad? Sorry I'm late, I…oh." He stopped and stared.

"You're still here. Great." Danny deadpanned, staring at the man who was sitting on their living room couch sipping tea.

"Danny, this is Vlad Masters, an old friend of ours from college. You didn't get to meet him before running out this morning, come say hi sweetie."

"Sorry." Danny didn't sound it. A pause. "….hi, Mister Masters." He finally muttered grudgingly. That feeling in his stomach was back. It was so far from the nice butterflies Phantom's smile gave him it felt like it'd come back round the other way. How did his parents not notice this?

"Oh please, call me Vlad, little badger. Your parents here were just catching me up on their latest escapades. We're in the same business after all." Vlad smirked and set down his cup. "Except I'm more of a…collector, of sorts."

"Oh yeah? Of what, weird ties?" He couldn't help it, he was tired and cold and he just wanted a shower. But Vlad's next words made Danny nearly miss a step going upstairs.

"Of those monstrous mythical creatures in the sea, my dear boy. Merfolk, to be exact."


	10. Chapter 10

_**Chapter 10**_

"_So what did you say?"_

"What do you mean what did I say? I got out of there as quick as I could. I think I ended up staying in the shower for over an hour…at least mom didn't ask me to come back down. I don't think I could have stomached that fruitloop giving my mom the googly eyes any longer." Danny moaned, leaning over his desk more.

"_Gross, dude. What did your dad do?" _Tucker commented.

"He was too busy reliving the good old days with Vlady to notice. Apparently they went…fishing together a lot and had more than a few close encounters."

"_So what are you up to now?"_ Sam's voice chimed in again.

"Aside from losing another game of Chinese Checkers to my computer? Nothing. I'm afraid to go out for…you know, reasons." Danny admitted quietly into his phone, slumping over his desk and hitting the mouse as he stared blankly at the screen.

"_Uh-huh, but I still think you're worrying for nothing. Phantom's kind of terrifying dude. In case you haven't noticed."_

"That's not what I'm worried about….and he's not scary Tucker! I'm worried about him getting hurt, even if he doesn't get captured. Or Dani or Ember, or any of the rest of Phantom's, uh, school thing."

"_School?"_

"Yeah you know, like a school of fish?"

"…_clever."_

"Thank you….anyway, I guess I better go."

"Okay dude."

"_Bye—And Danny, this might be a little good, if you hang around your parents and that Masters guy, you might get some good information on merpeople."_

"Yeah, I guess…thanks Sam. Later."

"_Bye."_

Danny set his phone down and took a moment to rub his temples. He felt a headache coming on.

**oOo**

"I don't see your little fishbone here, anchovy." The comment wasn't said nastily. At least, not really. Not by the speaker's standards.

"…what do you care?" Phantom muttered to the larger merman as he swam by, slipping past him with a warning flick of his tail. He didn't feel like this right now. He just wanted to see Danny, and those amazing blue eyes.

"He's always here by now, isn't he? Calls you like his little pet with that splash thing. He must have wised up." Phantom wrinkled his nose and flared his fins, trying to remember the name Danny had given him. Started with that hiss sound.

"Wised up about what hunter?" Phantom asked despite himself. He looked like he immediately regretted the question, but 'hunter' seemed to enjoy it.

"Face it anchovy, that scrawny two legged got bored, I bet."

"He only missed one day…" The words sounded pathetic even to his own fins. Dammit.

"Ah, that's how it starts."

"…shut up, hunter."

Phantom remembered the word 'Skulker' too late; he'd already swam off with a disgruntled growl by that time.

Tch, whatever.

**oOo**

It ended up being two days before Danny took his chances with heading out for the day again. His parents didn't head out themselves until after noon, taking Vlad with them much to Danny's relief. They were even going on a two day trip out on the boat, and Danny wasn't sure if he was sickened or happy. Two days with no parents that fruitloop? Danny still felt weird just thinking about the look on his face.

_There's no way he knew, Fenton. You're over thinking again. Pity you can't do that during math, you might actually pass for once. _

Danny hopped down the stony path to the secluded little beach, blinking when he saw the merman already resting on their usual rock.

"Hey Phantom? Feeling brave today?" He called, heading over to his friend, who perked up and purred happily at him. Danny smiled, feeling his spirits lift. Yeah, okay.

"…whoa, hey, missed you too buddy…e-everything's alright, yes okay, have a hug," around his waist but, hey, Phantom was making progress. And giving it his best effort. Danny patted that scaled shoulder absentmindedly, gently but firmly peeling himself away from the clingy merman, who nudged him playfully and smirked at him.

"Danny! …I…" the words ended in that strange jumble of noises and murmurs, what Danny recognized by now as a language he probably had no chance of ever fully understanding.

"…you what?"

The merman sighed and just glanced at him worriedly and shrugged, and Danny wondered vaguely if the worry was for him. Probably not. Phantom was too…he was just too everything. Amazing and strong and friendly, too worry about a loser like him.

"Let's…let's get going, I guess, huh buddy?" The human sighed, dropping his bag to the sand and throwing Phantom a salmon before pulling his swimming stuff out.

"See? Got a new tank and everything…Dad just got them filled but as usual he forgot two so I'll just put this one with the others…hope they buy it again…" This was usual, ramble and hope no one notices you feel like shit. Phantom couldn't even speak the same language as him. He wouldn't notice, right?

"Danny?"

"What's the matter Phantom?" The boy asked as he moved out into the water, adjusting his oxygen tank. Wow, he'd missed this more than he realized—not just Phantom, really. Water really was therapeutic he supposed.

The merman was pointing anxiously up at the gray clouds that arguably looked darker than just the normal gloom and doom. Had they gotten darker since he'd left? For a second even Danny watched the sky with some concern, before shaking his head. No, he needed this. And after seeing Phantom waiting for him like that…maybe Phantom needed him too. That light a tiny kindle of fire in his stomach, commonly referred to as hope. It gives you strength when you need it, and that was what Danny needed right now.

"Eh, it'll be fine buddy. Come on…I just want to swim, okay?" His tone must have worked wonders, because despite the merman's hesitance, Phantom did finally splash after the human and dive deep with him into the reef. Phantom swam closer to usual than Danny that time, and inwardly Danny was grateful. He just…felt like doing something that didn't require worry. Just wonder and motions. He'd gotten the hang of breathing with a tank by now, and how to use his flippers and his new watch reminded him every 15 or so minutes. Plus, if he was here with Phantom and the others than he knew for certain _they_ were safe. Would he do something if Vlad or his parents showed up?

…maybe. If hiding didn't work, probably. That whole screech wail thing Phantom did could only do so much.

Really, Danny was just plain lucky his parents headed on a trip for supplies and whatever else it was they apparently needed for sea creature hunting. _How mad would they be if I told them all you need is something shiny and some fish? _

The human glanced over to see Phantom chasing after a shiny little fish, and Danny smirked. He chuckled inwardly and kicked after his friend, following him down to the outer zone of the reef, just before the drop off. The fish darted free from Phantom's grasp, but he didn't seem to mind. He spotted Danny and swam after him instead, though with much less hunter-prey mentality, Danny noted.

_I started out later than usual._ A few moments after that thought his new watch beeped again, alerting him to the final ten minutes left. He spent the time letting Phantom drag him where he wanted, and just as Danny realized he had to surface…all hell let loose.

What happened was this: Danny waved good bye to everyone and Phantom included, and headed for shore and upward.

He broke the surface. And then the surface tried to break him.

Nearly in half it felt like, tossing him up, down and then sideways, disorientating the poor boy as he lost his mask and tank, spine slamming into the murky water as the wind howled and torrents lashed down. A second wave slammed over his body with no warning, yanking him out with the tide. Danny went with the flow for a second, before sticking his head out of water and looking up to see the reason for such colossal waves.

Holy…_storm_. The wind and rain lashed down, shoving Danny's spine first against a rock jutting out, in the shallows that surrounded the private beach, causing him to cry out and scrabble for it. Thunder rumbled overhead, but that was the least of Danny's worries as he felt his body being pulled off the rock again. Then the ocean abruptly changed its mind, bringing a huge wave to wash over him, and nearly rip him from the rock he'd just managed to hold on to.

"Gyah-!" Lightning split the sky and the ocean had white caps everywhere, with each wave crest. Okay….maybe Phantom was right about the cloudy sky being a little…dangerous. Why didn't he check the weather this morning!? By the third time he felt his aching side push into the rock again, both he and the boulder were so soaked he felt his fingers slipping.

_I'm gonna drown if this keeps up…_

"P-Phantom? _Phantom!"_ Danny cried out. The merman couldn't have gone far. Danny floundered, and despite his common sense began trying to move through a wave, keeping an eye on the shore that appeared every time the waves lowered. It worked, more or less, but a bigger one surged behind him, and the next thing he knew he was shoved helplessly under water and toward shore much too quickly, with no control. He hadn't taken a breath, he didn't know where he was—_shit_, the beach, which had pointy, large rocks a-and—

Then silver and tan appeared in his vision and caught him easily, pulling him firmly in a different direction and to Danny's surprise a bit to the right. He pressed his face into the scale speckled skin and felt that huge body undulate, cutting them though the water better than Danny's weak little legs ever hoped to.

Phantom sent them upward with a powerful corkscrew, letting Danny get air. He clung to the merman, forgetting any embarrassment in at a time like this, and let Phantom hold him however he wanted.

"…l-land?" He managed to question weakly, hacking a moment.

But the merman was shaking his head, and started pulling him from the shore. If it were anyone but Phantom, Danny might have freaked out, those old fish tales weren't _entirely_ lies.

"Phantom…c-can't we…?" Danny said when the thunder finally stopped crashing overhead.

" No, danger..." and then, determined but so soft Danny didn't quite catch it over the roar of the winds, "Keep Danny safe."

Wide blue eyes moved over to him, staring at him for a second. He opened his mouth and a wave tried to toss them up, but Phantom simply grabbed hold of the boy tight and surged under the water, Danny pressed under his chin as he swam. His lungs started burning after three long beats of that tail, and he grabbed Phantom's bicep, squeezing and letting bubbles issue out. The merman spared him a fleeting look and then yanked him upward, only for lightning to streak overhead. Phantom gritted his teeth and held Danny down, taking his face in both webbed hands and firmly sealing their lips together, pushing over air. Danny's eyes widened, but in shock more than anything. His own hands found purchase just behind those head fans, into that shifting silver hair. Phantom pulled back once he was sure Danny had enough, and searched his eyes worriedly. The merman mistook his glazed look for not enough air and kissed him again, making sure to not let them float to close to the choppy surface.

Danny couldn't help it, he had enough oxygen. He was thinking fine, and certainly not with his brain anymore, but with that little fire in his chest which was growing. So what if he…leaned up a little more and hummed, making his lips vibrate against the merman's, trying to show that this was alright, this was _more_ than alright. There didn't seem to be any better time to do it. Phantom glanced down at him in surprise, gripping his arms lightly before pulling back, forgetting they were under water.

Danny closed his mouth and glanced at him through his goggles, eyes desperate and pleading. This wasn't…really the place for it but…

He offered a weak smile to Phantom anyway, making the merman straighten up and give that determined stare again, fins starting to open.

Danny's chest started aching and he huddled down in Phantom's arms, bubbles issuing out as his knitted his eyes closed and trustingly let Phantom do the swimming. Phantom ducked to breathe for him/kiss him again, this time simultaneously pulling him backward and deeper. When Danny opened his eyes next, they weren't in any familiar part of the reef. He wasn't even sure if they were still _in_ the reef. Had they cleared the drop off? It wasn't like he could stop Phantom and ask where they were going. The best he could do was hold onto the mernan tight without constricting his movement, and squeeze his arm when he needed air.

With no light or familiarity except Phantom, Danny lost track of time and place. He focused on the pauses when Phantom gave him air, and the swaying motions as the merman soared through water with effortless motions. One minute Phantom was banking sharply to the right with one fin folded, the next the space felt…closed in. And getting more closed in. Danny's back scraped a rock, and a few moments before Danny felt the pressure in his chest threaten again, they broke the…no longer thrashing waves.

Wait…what?

Danny coughed, taking in mouthfuls of air in-between that and trying to look around. Phantom murmured softly and steered Danny through the suddenly calm waters, pulling the boy's body onto a soft surface and, oh…sand. Sand?

"P-Phantom? Where…where are we?" Danny managed, pulling himself out of the water on shaky arms and collapsing into the cool sand.

"Land."

"…what? But…we can't be—it's all dark…and…" Danny trailed off because his problem had been solved, and soft white light trickled in from overhead. Danny stared up at the rock ceiling and large gaping holes that were allowing the light. Night had fallen—theyd been swimming that long?—and the storm had vanished. All that's left was the inky black night, and the stars and the moon, clear and soothing. It let Danny peer around for a moment, getting his bearings. A cave? He could still hear the ocean around them; they must have been half way around Amity.

"…I guess the storms over…"

Phantom rumbled faintly as he moved up beside the human, stretching out with a yawn.

"…Phantom? You okay?" Danny was answered by the merman plopping onto his stomach and laying his head on his arms. His tail relaxed and his fins went slack, the first sign of an exhausted merman.

"…sorry buddy, you had to do all the swimming for both of us." Danny apologized quietly, moving to lie next to him, daringly closer than usual.

Phantom grinned proudly at him and shifted to his side, lifting his arm and pectoral fin up, as if in invitation. Danny blinked a minute, before swallowing his stomach (which was currently trying to take up residence in his throat) and shimmied over. It was pretty chilly in this little...alcove, cave thing. His wet suit was starting to become a problem, too.

"I hope you can get us out of here in the morning." He joked weakly, knowing the words would be lost but the tone wouldn't.

Phantom rumbled softly and curled up around him. Danny sneezed once and the merman made a funny, crooning noise. Danny smiled gently, and suddenly Phantom was nudging him and pulling him closer with all the insistence of a mother hen handling her chicks. Danny ruined the moment by sneezing.

"…s-sorry…"

"Danny. Okay?" The merman took a hand, staring at the limp blue fingers.

"T-this is what I get for not c-checking the weather, right?" Danny grinned, teeth clacking together. He sniffed and pressed closer to that warm body, wrapping his arms round the merman's waist for good measure. Oh god WARMTH.

And then Danny froze, out of embarrassment this time, because suddenly hot air was washing over his fingers in a long steady puff. They weren't numb just very cold, until suddenly they didn't feel so frozen. Danny lifted his head to see Phantom finishing exhaling over his fingers, before turning to look down at him for confirmation.

"…Danny? Feel….better?" Phantom tried, taking his other hand questioningly.

"I…uh…y-yeah, yeah I do…Phantom, yes." He managed a shaky nod and everything. That was true enough. His embarrassment was making the warmth spread almost down to his toes by now.

Danny decided, right then and there, in this secluded little place with the moon overhead and Phantom smiling softly over at him, that maybe yes…This could work.

So Danny leaned over and pressed their lips together gently, eyes fluttering closed. The fire in his hope got warmer, and helped center him.

"Mmnh…" That was Phantom, half in surprise and half in what Danny hoped was pleasure. He was apparently right, because the next thing the human knew he was being pressed into the sand from the weight of the merman stretching out on top of him.

He broke the kiss, staring up at Phantom dazedly, mumbling his name.

Okay…that silver hair in the moonlight…was…really amazing and shimmering. His fingers wandered up to his, smiling when a head fin shifted out of his way, like the way a dog flicks its ears when you touch it. Except Phantom wasn't a dog, certainly, and maybe he seemed a bit more animalistic, but that was only because Danny didn't know all he could about Phantom or his species yet.

But he was willing to learn.

Right now he was learning that fun of freeing the small knots that he found in the back of Phantom's hair, smiling when the merman's eyes drifted closed and he started purring softly. His lips turned upward. Danny's own grin widened. He craned his neck up and gently guided Phantom's head down at the same time, matching their lips for a second short kiss.

Phantom gave that delighted little crooning noise again, and didn't move from his spot on top of the boy.

"I can't tell if you're lying on me like this to warm me up or something else." Danny smirked, grinning when their noses were bumped lightly. The human chuckled and focused back on what his fingers were doing, running one of Phantom's head fins between his pointer and middle fingers, watching it flatten close and then flick open once it was free.

"You're something else Phantom." Danny commented, freeing his other hand and lifting it toward Phantom's face. The merman spotted it and leaned to meet it, nuzzling his palm for a moment. Danny rubbed his thumb over those cheek scales for a while, watching Phantom as he lay under him and in the sand. Eventually, yes, he was going to have to return home, which meant more swimming, which meant he wasn't going anywhere until he convinced Phantom to let him leave. But he also wasn't going to up and ask the poor guy to swim him out again, especially after what Phantom had just done. He looked half asleep anyway, and his parent's weren't coming back from their trip until tomorrow afternoon.

Everything would be alright.

"I…I really like you, Phantom." Danny finallyoffered in a soft voice, listening to those deep rumbling purrs that made the mernan's body practically vibrate.

_But do you know how much? …Hell..do I? _

"Danny." He sighed his name happily, lowering his chin to rest on Danny's collarbone. He murred when a hand started fiddling with one of his sensitive head fans again. Phantom craned down to kiss him again, but was sleepy and missed his lips, ending up hitting Danny's chin.

Danny smiled, wondering why he felt more than a little heartbroken, even after the admission.


	11. Chapter 11

_**Chapter 11**_

Danny opened his eyes the next morning, and realized two things. One, it was still dark out, and two, he couldn't check his watch because he was still wedged under the merman's girth, wrapped in his pectoral fins and all. He yawned, and became aware of that Phantom's familiar wheezing noise was slower and steadier than usual. He felt warm and mostly comfortable actually, and, well wow. Talk about a safe place.

The human smiled and lifted his head free, so he could peer up at the mernan's sleeping face. Aside from looking a little pasty, from the lack of water, he seemed to sleeping fine. Phantom's chin was resting on Danny's shoulder, and his frills twitched lightly in his sleep. Danny chuckled, and gently tugged on one of those fins.

"…c'mon on Phantom…rise and shine." Danny spoke quietly, trying to keep the laughter out of his voice.

Phantom's nose twitched and he gave a grunt.

"I'll bring back _pizza_ tomorrow." Danny tried again.

A green eye cracked open.

"Morning." Danny said cheerfully. Phantom snapped that glowing eye closed and huffed like a child.

The merman heaved a sigh and slowly rolled off him, dragging himself into the water and stretching out. Danny noticed the way Phantom started breathing easier after a quick dip under the water. Danny himself sat up; glancing at the shallow little dent they'd left in the sand. The lack of Phantom made him notice when the cool air brushed his skin. He checked his watch in the dim light as he crawled into the shallow water.

"It's six something…murgh. We better head back I suppose." Danny commented faintly.

Phantom stretched and gave a shake, turning to watch Danny expectantly. He purred when Danny got closer and grinned, nudging his knee.

"Hi." He chuckled, feeling brave after last night and reaching out to run his fingers through his hair. Phantom arched to the touch with a happy croon, tilting his head to guide Danny's fingers to his cheek scales, and when Danny took a guess and lightly ran his fingernails under and around the black spots he had a melting, purring merman stretched into his lap.

"…have to remember, scratching good. And not checking the weather when it looks gray: bad." Danny smiled to himself, gently stopping the scratching and moving out into the water, hissing a bit at the chilly water.

"Woo, okay…"

Phantom whined and crawled out after him, glancing at him dubiously.

"What, you don't want to go? Dude…Phantom I…I have to go home, eventually." Danny reminded with a sad smile.

The merman watched him stand there with the cold water up to his knees, and gave him a look. He smirked and pulled himself onto the sand, making a show of stretching out and snuggling down. Danny blinked and watched him. Phantom closed his eyes and crooned happily, fins relaxing.

"…oh that is not fair."

Phantom crooned and rolled over lazily, heaving a sigh.

"….alright fine." The human muttered, stepping out of the water and plopping down, this time on top of the merman, just to be an annoyance.

It didn't work.

The merman sniggered. And then shifted and rolled, sending the human sliding clumsily off him in a jumble of limbs. Danny gave a squawk and huffed, opening his mouth to voice his objections, only to be silenced by the merman matching their lips and shifting up on top of him.

"Mnph!" The human managed, before hands cupped his face and a thumb brushed his cheek, like Danny had done to Phantom earlier. Phantom was nothing if not a quick learner.

The merman took a long moment with the kiss, before he finally pulled back; tilting his head as he watched Danny stared dazedly up at him.

"…now I see why you didn't want to move."

Phantom chuckled and flopped his tail, watching Danny fondly.

They spent longer than Danny realized like that, curled up and kissing back and forth. Danny settled back easily into the warmth of Phantom's body, blinking when those pectoral fins spread out to try and wrap around him, along with the mernan's arms. Without thinking Danny did the same with his own arms, suddenly wishing he had his own…fin things, to hug Phantom back. To tangle their tails or something. As it was, the merman's long fish tail wrapped both Danny's legs, the scales familiar and smooth.

Phantom was quiet and half asleep again when he suddenly froze. His content purring halted in his throat as the he sat up to twist around. Danny only noticed because he was playing with one of Phantom's frills, and the merman actually jerked it out of his hold to lift his head and look around.

Danny blinked up at him. He reached again for that frill and Phantom stopped him with a gentle but firm murmur, gently pushing his hand down. Danny watched curiously, not feeling hurt because well, Phantom must have a good reason for this, right? Phantom moved his hand onto Danny's chest, applying just an ounce of pressure.

"Ah…Phantom careful…" Danny muttered, only to be broken off with a soft shush.

The merman tensed over him, spreading his fins and slinking over and toward the water's edge, looking almost hesitant. Danny strained to hear something, holding his breath, but he didn't hear anything. He held back any questions, instead focusing on the merman currently on alert. He may or may not have admired Phantom's profile for a moment too, those tense muscles and that strong jaw and…

Suddenly said strong jaw with inches from his face, murmuring his name urgently and taking his waist.

"Phantom _what_—ack!" he was pulled into the water and given only a moment to catch his breath and pull his goggles on before he felt himself held into the position they used to travel during the storm. Danny felt some bubbles slips past his lips as Phantom swam down and toward a dark hole.

_Oh…kay. Guess we're going back…what WAS that?_

With no storm or terrifying waves to disorient him, Danny spared a look around when they exited the small underwater tunnel. Phantom swam strong and sure in a certain direction, but Danny looked around, and wondered vaguely what that large darker blue thing was in the distance, up by the surface.

…_a…boat?_

Phantom only paused to give him air when the human grabbed his bicep, and by the time Danny recognized the rock formations that signaled they were back in the reef zone, he had entirely forgotten the boat, if it was a boat at all.

He was more interested in the fact Phantom had just give him this kind of…sexy…little smirk and was heading for the beach. He spared a glance at his watch, noting it was already close to twelve. The next thing he knew he was being pushed up on a rock and his neck was nuzzled. Well, Danny certainly wasn't going to argue there—except when he went to hug back the merman pulled away and Danny dropped back into the water with a startled plop.

"…Phantom!"

"…pyza." Was all the merman said smugly, using his arms to wiggle on top of a rock and curl his tail around himself, settling down. He grinned over his folded arms at the look on Danny's face.

"…pfft. Jerk." But it was half hearted and more than a little fond, and Danny splashed the merman as he went by.

"I'll be right back Phantom!"

The merman rumbled, but his eyes were closed and he looked, for all intense purposes, like he expected to stay right there, napping in the sun. Danny chuckled and headed back to town, making sure to get the merman an extra slice after all that swimming. Nothing unusual happened on the way back, except for the moment he bumped into someone.

"Oh…my bad, sorry," He said easily, adjusting the pizza box he had to keep flat before going on his way. He was waved off, the international sign for ok and so Danny simply continued on his way, deciding to pull out the slice of cheese and pepperoni before the fish smell got on his slice. He didn't notice the figure look over his shoulder to watch him, and then double back, following the boy until Danny passed a large ship in the docks, which he took no notice off either because hey, huge ships came into Amity all the time.

The man turned and headed up the plank of the S.S. Madeleine_._

When Danny returned to the private beach, Phantom hadn't even moved from his spot, and was asleep. He was snoring to prove it, so Danny quietly snuck up behind him, made sure to hold the pizza box safely out of danger annnnd—

_SPLASH_!

The merman yelped and shot up when the cold water hit his warmed scales, moving his tail to whack away whatever it was that…oh. He stared at the impish grin on Danny's face and then snorted, giving him an unimpressed look.

"…aw come on. You missed me." Danny grinned, handing over the pizza box before Phantom changed his mind and did decide to whack him with tail. It'd probably break him in half if he wasn't careful. Ah well. Phantom would never hurt him.

In any case, the merman had lightened up considerably once he saw and smelled the pizza, and tore through cardboard and was mrring happily when he saw more slices than usual.

"Danny?" Danny looked over to see a slice of pizza offered to him.

"No thanks, I'm good." Danny laughed, moving back into the water to rest against the rock Phantom was perched on. This was a little backwards, merman on the rock and human in the water but it was kind of fun, really. Especially when Phantom gave him that smile and in-between bites leaned down to kiss random parts of his face.

Danny laughed and let him, scrunching his nose when Phantom finished with his final kiss there.

"Sap." He said playfully, knowing the tone wouldn't be lost on the merman, who rumbled and swallowed the last of his pizza. When Danny was sure he was done and the box was out of the way Danny smirked and made the come here motion with his finger.

The merman blinked but leaned down obediently, only to have his shoulders grabbed and his body pulled into the shallow water on top of the human, who sank under the water from the weight.

As for Phantom, he gave a delighted chirp and helped Danny, since the boy couldn't hope to drag all of him in. So he swam after him, tackling him happily into the sandy surf and going so far as to nip a shoulder. They continued on like this, Phantom chasing after Danny and Danny trying to catch Phantom, (grabbing the tail worked wonders, but nine out of ten the merman slipped free and doubled back to run into him on purpose.) Danny was just being pushed under the water by the merman slamming into his back when Phantom paused and yanked him back up, holding him in the water.

"…Phantom? What's a matter?"

Phantom swam after him easily, snorting when he spotted the three figures on the beach.

"Danny?"

The human glanced at Phantom, and then followed where the hand was pointing. Danny peered over and swam out of the merman's hold.

"…Sam? Tucker? Jazz?" Danny mumbled, giving a stronger kick to head to shore.

"Danny? Danny!" His sister saw him first, and even ran to the edge of the water, staring. "Danny where _were_ you!? There was a storm and when I called Sam's house to check up on you her mother said you weren't there and—"

"You called to check up on me?" Danny blinked, walking out of the water and glancing sheepishly at the empty pizza box sitting next to Jazz.

"Yes! And Sam wouldn't give me a straight answer so I tried Tucker and—"

"Annnnd they lead you _here_." He gave them a look. To his slight annoyance they shrugged.

"Dude, it _was_ pretty terrible last night, I mean the power went out and stuff."

"Least we didn't tell your parents. Besides, Jazz threatened us. We held her off as long as we could."

"And I'm not sorry about it. do you know what mom and dad would have done if they'd come home and you were missing on my watch? You scared me half to Danny!"

"She _threatened_ you—"

They might have gone farther into the discussion if Jazz hadn't seen Phantom slink up behind Danny in the surf and give a little startled yelp. Seeing him off shore was one thing, but when he was this close and you looked behind him and the tail and the fins was floating there, well it earned Phantom more than a double take. Danny couldn't blame her for looking like that. At least she didn't scream and try to yank him to safety. Phantom gave a startled snort himself upon seeing Jazz, and actually swam up to her, lifting himself onto his tail to get a better look.

"…uh…guys? What…" The mernan got all their attention by rumbling curiously, and Jazz's few words were promptly ignored as Phantom cocked his head at her.

"Phantom? What is it?"

"…Danny?" Phantom asked instead, pointing at Jazz. Danny blinked and walked over.

"We're siblings, yeah. This is Jazz. Jaah. Zz." Danny spoke automatically, smiling at the merman. "She's a friend too Phantom." Though this didn't need to be said apparently, as there was nothing tense or scared about Phantom's body language at all. Danny'd seen him give the same interested and attentive look to a bottle they'd found diving one day.

"Jaa…" is all Phantom managed, before falling silent and peering at her curiously.

His older sister just smiled awkwardly and stood stock still. After a moment she seemed to buck up her courage and she waved. This caused Phantom light up like the fourth of July and wave cheerfully back. THAT he knew how to do! Danny chuckled and walked out of the water and onto the beach, standing next to his sister.

"He's not gonna bite, Jazz. I think it's because we look a lot alike, actually…uhm, body language and looks are a lot to, to them." Danny mumbled quietly, fiddling with his hands.

"R-really? Wait, how did _you_ know that?" Jazz spared a glance at him this time and Danny grinned weakly.

"Remember when I asked mom about fish mating?" He said.

"…yes I do. It was disgusting." She was back to watching Phantom again, who was lowering down and itching one of his cheeks absentmindedly.

"Okay, that was about nine days before that that I uh, met Phantom." Danny watched his big sister do the math in her head, and when her eyebrows rose and she finally moved to look at him, he knew she figured it out.

"…wow." Was all she managed.

It was Danny's turn to smile worriedly, and he distracted the merman by going to sit on the beach. He was looking at his friends and sister as they joined him, but wasn't surprised when Phantom's purred at him and his body pulled up behind him. Phantom curled round him, long fins settling over his legs.

"…so he's…uh, he's Phantom." Jazz spoke the name slowly, as if trying to test it out. Phantom glanced at her, but when he saw she didn't need anything he lowered his chin back on his crossed arms and yawned.

"Yeah." Said Danny easily, smiling when his leg was nudged.

"Can he talk?"

"A little bit. Mostly yes and no, and names and stuff. It's hard teaching him when he's got his own language…I don't think I'll ever figure it out. I think he's got two sets of…organs or something, maybe."

The shock seemed to be wearing off and Danny saw Jazz focusing again. "This whole time you've been…every time you left you were out here? With—with your friend?"

"Well, yes—annnd it was going fine until last night. I didn't get hurt, okay! Sam and Tucker weren't supposed to tell anyone!" He muttered, giving his friends an accusing, slightly hurt glare.

"Uh-uh, you can't blame them Danny, Sam and Tucker did the right thing. They just told me where to find you."

"She wouldn't have believed us if we told her the reason." Sam pointed out with a look.

"Sam's right, I wouldn't have." Danny could see Jazz was too busy staring at Phantom to notice much of anything else anymore. The merman had closed his eyes and was pressed against his upper thigh, that soft whisp-ing gasping noise sounding through him as his body rose and fell with each breath.

"Jazz? It's okay. You can come closer." Danny offered with a faint smile when she saw him focusing curiously on those bumpy tan shoulders. Trust that analytic mind of his sister's to kick in full throttle when she was _sure_ there wasn't any danger. The only danger there seemed to be right now was of Phantom falling asleep, Danny noted as the merman started stilling against him.

"Oh, no I…" But she had seen Sam and Tucker sit on the other side of Danny by Phantom's tail, leaving the spot next to the merman's head open. She settled in the sand carefully with slow movements, watching Phantom closely for any signs of aggression or acknowledgement at all, even.

"…Okay I know I've called mom and dad crazy and life ruiners on more than one occasion but this is…pretty cool. God and do you know what this means Danny!? They were right! Well, on some things…I mean his teeth aren't all pointy. He does have claws though…"

Danny grinned, shoulders lowering. Maybe his parent's excitement was contagious, or, or genetic or something, but he could see the gears turning in his sister's head, and saw her fingers twitching slightly in the sand where they rested. Without thinking he reached and scratched the shoulder farthest from him and closest to Jazz, earning a sleepy purr from the merman at the gesture.

"He's pretty…friendly isn't he?" Jazz commented, watching the merman press against her little brother, and watching her little brother let it happen like it was no big deal.

"Yeah to _Danny_." Came Sam's grumble as she watched that tail shift warily.

"To be fair we didn't make the best impression, Sam. He thought we were gonna hurt Danny or something and so he kind of flipped his shit." Tuck explained when he saw Jazz raise an eyebrow.

"Tucker." Danny hissed, still trying to make a good impression.

"Well he did!"

Danny sighed and rolled his eyes, but let the subject drop. He went back to Jazz, trying to give her his best convincing look.

"He's **not** bad, okay? And he's not a monster. They're people just like us, Jazz, you wouldn't believe it down there, it's amazing!"

"Mhm." Said his big sister distractedly, causing Danny to finally really _notice_ that look in Jazz's eye.

Without thinking Danny reached over and took her hand, lifting it up and over to him and likewise, by Phantom's. He glanced to make sure Phantom hadn't moved or changed his posture, and he certainly hadn't. So Danny closed the distance, letting Jazz's fingertips rest against Phantom's shoulder blade. She stayed still for a moment, staring at her fingers and feeling the little black scales that interrupted the skin. One of Phantom's frills on his head flicked lazily but that was it.

"…woah."

Danny's face split into a grin; as he looked down to watch his friend with a warm, fond gaze. "Tell me about it."

Phantom just hmmed faintly and continued dozing.


	12. Chapter 12

_**I just wanna take a moment to thank you all for the awesome reviews and encouragement for this story. For being written on a whim I don't think its half bad and it's actually pretty fun to write. So thank you very much guys!**_

_Chapter 12_

It wasn't so much that Danny was panicking, as he was inwardly having a mildly extreme case of the guilts and the worries. Not to mention with a dash of what ifs, because as he glanced over at his sister he could see her mind working on farther ahead of his. He hated when she did that, especially since she did it so effortlessly, and that she ended up being right about it.

"Danny, you can't keep him." No shit.

"Jazz, I'm _not_ keeping him—what, you think I was going to drag him home one day, stick him in the tub and hope mom and dad wouldn't notice?" He tried to keep his voice down, but he couldn't quite keep the hysterical edge out of it. Phantom heard that, and promptly twisted and shoved his chin on his leg, basically resting his head in the humans lap as Danny spoke.

"I'm just saying—this can't go on for forever." Jazz pointed out softly but firmly. "We've got to tell mom and dad, they'll want to know. They deserve to know, after all…of this."

"…yeah, I guess." Danny finally glanced down sadly, laying his hand ontop of Phantom's silver hair, already dry and slightly sticking up into fly away poses. He weaved his fingers through some of them and finally said,

"Not yet, though."

"Danny—" Jazz started, but Danny shook his head and silenced her by holding his free hand up.

"They won't understand. I just need a little more time, that's it. If I don't do it right they'll, they'll kill Phantom or Phantom will hurt them, he won't mean to and I know they won't either but…Phantom doesn't think like us. It's not his fault, it's ours. We're the ones who can go underwater and on land, that makes him the easier target. He listens to me, and he trusts me, despite probably knowing he has no right too." Danny looked up then, fixing his older sister with a fierce, determined gaze that made her own eyes widen a touch.

"So I'm going to protect him, until they can understand. He's **not** a science experiment; he's **not** a mythical creature. He's just…he's my friend."

For a long time no one spoke, or even moved. All that was heard was the sound of waves sliding on shore and slinking back, combined with Phantom's soft airy breathing that he did above water. The merman hadn't broken his steady breathing, nor had he given any sign to the kids to show he was awake.

But even a human will play 'dead' if it benefits them.

"…alright." Jazz nodded softly, regarding her little brother with a look Danny couldn't quite place, but it was a good one he thought.

"…if that's what you want Danny. I mean I can see he's not going to fly off the handle and drag one of us down to sea like Dad rants they all do."

"…they only do that in self defense." Danny threw in quickly.

"Ignoring that. Just please be careful, alright Danny? Last night…I didn't know where you were and…"

"It's okay." Danny offered her a small comforting smile, glancing at Sam and Tucker too. "It was okay, Phantom got me into this cave that you can only reach by an underwater tunnel and it was fine, I promise. I'm all in one piece Jazz, see?"

"Just stay that way, okay little brother?" She suddenly leaned over and pecked his forehead before he could stop her, and Phantom mrred softly in his sleep, finally flicking open an eye to regard them lazily from where he lay.

"Oh sure you can do that but I can't even grab his wrist—"

"Dude it's probably a family thing. I bet Phantom can tell their related." Tucker suddenly spoke up, not taking his eyes from the screen of his PDA. Everyone blinked.

"How do you know?" Sam demanded.

"Because I just googled stuff on fish, check this out, apparently they've developed senses beyond us. Fish can sense light, chemicals, vibrations and even electricity! Man, how cool is that?!"

"Sure, a fish can do that, but that doesn't mean Phantom can. He's only half fish." Everyone looked at Danny as if on cue. "…_Can_ he?"

"H-huh? I don't know…I mean underwater this funny film covers his eyes, like another eye lid…and they glow really brightly."

"In the dark?"

"Well, not pitch black but it can get pretty dark down there." Danny bit his lip and thought for a second. "You said…fish can sense electricity?"

"Yeah. Here, dude, see for yourself…" Tuck handed over his PDA, letting Danny take it with his free hand and tilt it to see past the sun's glare. He checked it over and read out loud slowly,

"Sharks and rays possess special organs for detecting electrical voltage. A set of pits comprise the electroreceptive system called the…the amp…ullae of Lorenzini. These are canals in the skin filled with a gelatin-like material that also contain sensory cells.'"

Danny's free hand wandered down Phantom's shoulders to his waist and scaled hip, and the merman just rumbled sleepily at the touch and flicked a head fan.

"'Movements or disturbances near the shark change the voltage drop along the canals, which allows the shark to sense other organisms nearby. These sensors are so sensitive that if there were not any other distortions a shark could detect the heartbeat of a fish 500 miles away. They can detect muscular contractions of struggling prey and even the earth's magnetic field…which sharks also use for navigation."

"So? What does that have to do with Phantom?"

Danny handed Tucker's PDA back to him, and quietly explained the way Phantom had screeched at their parent's boat, jamming the locator.

"Mom spent three days trying to fix that thing. She said in the end there was some bad interference that caused the shortage." Jazz offered, giving the merman a faintly worried look.

"…Shark's don't scream at their prey." Sam pointed out as she watched Phantom scratch at his gills lightly.

"No but they can sense them. I wonder if Phantom could tell that stuff meant trouble. And there was no way he could see where he was swimming in that tunnel last night, so obviously he doesn't need clear water to see. And the chemical thing…I bet Jazz and I just smell and sort of look enough alike that Phantom put it together we're related."

"This stuff is pretty cool. I wonder what else he can do….especially with those claws." Tuck finished, giving the merman a cautious look. Phantom noticed it and cocked his head, giving him rather innocent eyes. Danny snorted and flicked the merman's nose in silent warning.

"And all the webbing he has on his sides and his back."

"Claws—tear apart my dad's cooler, pizza boxes and fish. Webbing—he uses that to swim and steer. And go fast." Danny said dismissively, trying to shove the merman's heavy tail off of his legs, when he noticed three sets of eyes on him. He paused and stared back.

"What?"

"Spent a lot of time with him, haven't you."

Phantom sniggered and finally pulled his tail off the boy, smirking as he was whacked lightly on the shoulder by Danny.

"Behave, mister."

The merman just cackled.

**oOo**

They spent only a little time after that with Phantom, before Jazz and Danny both realized it'd be a good idea to head back home. Phantom didn't seem to mind, he did seem eager to get back in the water though and to soothe his drying skin and itchyness. He purred goodbye to Danny and even the others, ducking under the water and letting his tail give the final wave good bye as the humans made their way back to the local beach, and took the docks up to the Pier where Sam and Tucker went their own ways. If Jazz noticed her little brother's uncharacteristic quietness and the way he stared at the ground as he walked, she wisely didn't say anything. Danny and his sister had just made it to the street they lived on when Jazz stopped and winced.

"I think…Mom and Dad are home."

"What makes you say that?" Danny blinked, coming out of his thoughts when he nearly walked into her shoulder.

"Well one, the boat's back in the dock, we just passed it. And two…I think the basements on fire again."

Danny moaned and the youngest Fentons broke into a jog to make it home quicker. He was just behind Jazz on the stairs to the front door, trying not to look suspicious with his heavy backpack behind him as the door flew open and there stood his mom holding the fire extinguisher.

"Oh! There you two are—hang on kids, you're father and I are just finishing up some last minute weapons!"

"…weapons?" Asked Danny in a small voice that Jazz now understood. She gave him a sympathetic look, while their mother just beamed and explained all about the latest gadget, designed to pierce better than a harpoon.

"And much smaller and easier to carry! Can't have those blasted creatures stealing from fishermen's nets and what not." Danny would never understand this mix of hunter and scientist his parents seemed to have regarding anything in the ocean. Particularly the dangerous ones, like Phantom's kind. It was scary.

"Besides, the guys down at the docks are all excited for it; it was their idea in fact! Oh, and Vlad's!" his father boomed happily from the basement stairs as he came up them.

Danny's expression went from slight fear to glower that could melt ice cream in a flash. "…is he still here?"

"Hm? Oh no, he left early last night, said his own boat needed some maintenance."

Jazz looked like she wanted to question him on his look and tense posture, but Danny was already tromping upstairs, giving nondescript comments about showering and taking a nap and basically wanting to be left alone.

**oOo**

Danny slept until late that night, went downstairs for a quick bite to eat and promptly passed out again; only stumbling downstairs the next morning around eleven, because he'd though he'd heard something explode in the basement again.

"…everything'alright?" He slurred to Jazz, flopping at the kitchen table and reaching for a muffin.

"Dad found the cannon he built in college. Apparently it still works." She said in rather normal tones, all things considered. Danny thought it vaguely nice that nothing seemed to phase his older sister anymore. Good for her.

"…a _what_?"

"A cannon." She turned a page in her book. "I guess it was supposed to help them catch merman or something, or Dad had a pirate phase. I don't really know."

"And I don't think I _want_ to know."

Despite this statement, Jack still came upstairs and cheerfully asked Danny to go to the boat when he had a chance and get some rope that was in the bench seat on starboard side.

"…right now?"

"Noo Danny, after breakfast if you want. I just need it by this afternoon, alright son? Head out soon though, and when you come back you can help me get this baby on the Fentonfisher!"

Danny sighed and complied wearily, though he didn't think anyone noticed. He finished his breakfast, dressed and was headed out the door as he heard his sister and dad talking.

"Dad, what are you even going to do with that? I bet they don't even sell cannonballs anymore."

"That's okay if they do Jazz, I found a bunch in storage! Hah, and your mom didn't think I'd ever be prepared for situations. Well look whose got the cannon now. It may be small but it still works!"

"…great. Just what we needed."

The boy chuckled as he shut the door and headed down the steps. It wasn't bad a day really, he'd gotten some sleep and despite the cannon situation—well that thing was just silly. Knowing Dad he'd forget about it and Mom would put it back in storage and that'd be the end of that. Danny found himself thinking about the homemade device more than he wanted too, as he bopped down the street and headed for the docks and the Pier. He watched the Ferris wheel on the Pier go round in the distance as he took a left and stepped toward the waterfront.

_Wonder how that'd help catch fish. Unless it exploded into a net, which I wouldn't put it past them to make something like that…still the net would have to be attached to something else Phantom or the others could swim out of it before it was dragged up. Eh….I'm thinking about it too much….wonder if Phantom likes eel…_

Danny was innocently walking on the docks when it happened. One minute he was wondering if he had time to stop by the little cove and the next he was being yanked harshly by one arm behind a large pile of boxes. His back hit the tower of them, and he felt rather cornered all of a sudden.

"Ow! Watch it; I only have two of these." He opened his eyes to give the grabber even more of a piece of his mind, only to feel his tongue get stuck in his throat as he stared at a smug looking Vlad Masters and two tall, burly men on either side of him.

"Hello, Daniel."

Well now Danny felt _very_ cornered.

"…and goodbye, fruitloop." He tried to step round, but it'd take at least three more steps to get past one of Vlad's 'buddies' who Danny realized vaguely were probably working for him, because at a single motion from Vlad he was yanked back in place with a single shove.

"I can see you don't pay your guys to think, just to take orders, eh?" Danny tried, causing the same guy who'd pushed him to growl faintly.

"Now now Daniel, I just want to have a little talk. Maybe take a day trip."

"So sudden? Don't you have to buy me dinner first or something, you creep?" Danny felt his patience wearing thing. He wasn't the only one, judging from the angry glint that flickered through Vlad's eye.

"Now I'll try not to be blunt but…" Vlad spoke easily, before suddenly switching postures and dropping his voice to a low his.

"I _know_ you know where the merpeople live Daniel, and you're going to help me get one."

"What's the blunt version of that, you kick me while you say it?" Danny snarled back, trying to turn on his heel to walk away again only to be grabbed by the meaty hands of Vlad's crewmen and turned round firmly in place. He was so going to bruise from all this.

"Hey! Let me go—"

"Stop playing games my dear boy, I've already asked nicely. Don't make this harder than it has to be. All I need is for you to…join me on a little boat ride. Shouldn't be so hard, right? Even though you clearly spend more time under the ocean than above it." Vlad grinned when he saw the look in Danny's eyes, who was unable to stop himself from tensing up defensively.

"That doesn't give you proof that I know—"

"Oh but it does. I've seen the way your parents 'lose' oxygen tanks so mysteriously. The way they come back empty. The teeth marks on one of their coolers. You think I was just here to visit? Sure, at first I was. But imagine my surprise when I find some…large black scales hiding in plain sight in your parent's laboratory floor. That's right. Look familiar?" The man opened his palm after reaching into his pocket, and indeed there were large round scales resting there, one looked faintly green when it hit the light just right, and Danny bite his lip so hard it hurt and gave another half hearted attempt to jerk his arms free.

"I know you've got something to do with those monsters, and if my hunch is correct you've at least tamed _one_."

"Okay first of all—" Then Danny saw stars, and he had to hold his aching jaw and listen to that fruitloop's words go on interrupted. Vlad pulled himself back from the casual punch used to silence him and smirked.

"The better part still is, according to my…own type of research, you've managed to do it to the one in its prime. Perfect for any self respecting Ichthyologist to dissect, or maybe yet the black market, they always pay well for these type of creatures. Up until now they were a challenge for me to even dream of capturing. Face it Daniel, you didn't cover all your bases, and I did.i should be thanking you."

Danny didn't think it was possible to hate someone this much, but he understood now why it was important to follow your gut.

_Phantom would have noticed earlier…_

Danny tried not to let the hopelessness sink in; he still had a chance, really. If he could just get away…he looked around for anyone else on the docks—seagulls. Great. Everyone was over on the Pier—the music and rides and noises covering any activities down by the farthest docks. Danny looked up when he felt himself being tugged toward Vlad's ship, curling his lip in disgust when saw it was named after his mom what the actual _fuck_—

"Wait, no you can't do this—" Danny cut himself off, staring at the glint of black metal that Vlad had pulled from his inner coat. His body trembled in place, giving Vlad and his stupid gun his best glare as he was pulled by two brutes up the plank and onto Vlad's stupidly oversized ship.

"I think you'll find I can do what I please, Daniel. Consider this a necessary evil, to let me rid the ocean of one more ship-sinking monster. The waters are infested around here, aren't they?"

"Gee, you make it sound like their rats, and not half people." Danny bit back, wincing when he was tugged non too lightly on deck.

"Oh but they are rats my boy." Vlad spoke with a velvet voice, and Danny suddenly felt more than a little worry, especially when he saw Vlad bend a scale in his fingers.

"And you're going to be the trap for one rat in particular."

**oOo**

"Hey, Sam? Didn't Danny say he hated that Vlad guy?"

"Yeah, why?" Sam looked up from her smoothie.

"…So explain to me why he just got on a boat with him."

The goth blinked and twisted on the bench to see for herself.

"…that can't be him, Tuck. He's with Phantom proably." It was at this point the figure Tuck suspected to be their friend was dragged by the arm, looking like he was kicking and screaming the whole way, behind the mast. The ship's anchor was drawn and it started pulling off; giving Sam and Tucker only enough time to run toward the end of the dock, but that time the ship was the size of a hand in the distance.

"…is it just me are they going a little fast?" The techno geek asked slowly.

"Like they have someone that doesn't want to be onboard?" the whole idea was ridiculous but if they hadn't just spent the better part of yesterday sitting next to a sleeping merman maybe they'd be less incline to believe the ridiculous.

"Uhuh."

Suddenly Sam turned and ran back down the docks, jumping onto the sandy beach before running then too.

"Sam? Sam!" Tucker yelled, scrambling to keep up with her. "Where are you going?"

"To that, that little cove thing….what does Danny do? …think," she cleared a rock and ran toward the shallows of the still waters that surrounded the private area and looked around. Tucker made it to her, and leaned over; trying to catch his breath as she watched Sam pick up a handful of small pebbles conveniently placed close to the lapping waves and threw most of them in at once.

"…dude you're a terrible rock skipper." He said, staring at the conveniently placed mound of pebbles that looked vaguely familiar.

"I'm not trying to skip rocks Tucker!" Sam snapped, taking a step back when she saw something large and black appear just under the surface. Green flicked up and down and the mass got bigger, sliding up under the water.

"Then what are—ohhh." Said Tucker, taking a step back when Phantom surged up out of the waves, looking at them expectantly.

"…Danny?" He asked in confusion, still looking around them. Phantom pulled himself up anyway, and stood up on his tail best he could, cocking his head.

At that, Sam and Tucker shared nervous looks with each other before taking hesitant steps toward the dark wet sand.

_How_ were they going to explain this?

**oOo**

Phantom watched Danny's two legged friends start talking.

He wished idly he knew what they were saying, because so far all he got was that if he swam backward he'd drop into a three foot sinkhole.

…wait, Danny? He perked up, watching them closely. Phantom had never hated his limited vocabulary more than he did right there. When he was with Danny he never seemed to have this problem. He always worked it out eventually. Or Danny helped him understand.

Ocean…Danny….something…was wrong.

Then they were pointing, their voices rose in worry as they stared at something behind him. So he twisted to look out past the waters, wincing when he saw that large human mover from earlier this sun rise. That one had been moving round earlier, and it felt threatening enough that Phantom had dragged Danny back to his land just to be on the safe side. He could feel _motions_ in the water that gave him plenty of reason to avoid it still, and now it looked like those friends of Danny's wanted him to go near it? No way in—

There was Danny's name again. And they were pointing at the human's upside down whale. They couldn't mean…that _Danny_ was on that dangerous thing.

Phantom had a vague sinking feeling, and he looked back round to really scrutinize them both, especially the girl with the black hair and pale skin. Their voices were truthful, their body language desperate and almost pleading as they tried to urge him on. They wanted him to go there, or at least toward, because Danny wasn't with them, or him, which meant he might be somewhere that was not safe for him to be.

The giant light whale that gave him a bad feeling, that he purposefully had gotten him and Danny away from earlier, and his human, his partner, were connected. Of course.

Phantom's eyes widened in horror and before anything else happened, he pushed off the sand and dove into the water, clearing the mounds of rocks with a single jump as he darted toward the human mover.

Danny.

**oOo**

Vlad gave him a shove, making Danny wobble and barely catch himself as he stumbled against the moving ship. With his arms now bound he had little to no balance, and he nearly did fall into the ocean like that. He was unable to stop a cry when this happened, which proved to be his undoing even more. Everyone whipped their head up when this sharp piercing noise started from somewhere. The crewmen looked at Vlad, Vlad looked at Danny and Danny was unable to stop himself from looking in direction it had come.

"Sir the radios—"

"Forget the radios; get to your positions, now!" Vlad barked as that terrifying shrill noise slowed. But he'd seen and heard enough to know what that noise meant. If they didn't have Daniel that'd be the end of it, he supposed, except they _did_ have the brat and he was being shoved against the railing closest to where they'd heard the noise, right in view. Danny gritted his teeth and tried to swallow the noise of pain when the ropes dug into his arms and his ribs were pressed into the railing, eliciting a cry of hurt.

Phantom had…excellent hearing after all.

"…ah, there we are. Right on time." Came Vlad's amused voice in his left ear. Danny stared around helplessly at the machinery set up, at the net lying in secret, ready to spring under and pull the merman up when Phantom was swimming over it.

Danny's heart sank as he watched the water split from a tail as it appeared and vanished under the surface. M-maybe it wasn't him? And the others, as much as they tolerated or liked Danny, would never stick around when they saw this danger. That'd only be something that his…that Phantom would do.

His eyes widened in dismay when Phantom's silver hair caught the sunlight before diving back under water. Before he could scream for Phantom to stop Vlad clamped a hand over his mouth, watching in evil satisfaction as Phantom paused, sticking up out of the water to stare up and up and—the minute he spotted Danny it was over, because he was swimming toward them again. Danny wiggled against Vlad's hold, trying to shake his head, to pull back from the side, anything to stop Phantom from seeing him. But the watchful merman spotted this, and it only seemed to make him angrier. With a smack of his tail he continued surging toward the boat that was now coasting deeper out to sea. Leading him into deeper waters…a trap.

He bounded closer, closing the space at reckless speed. He wasn't even hesitating, Danny realized with an internal whimper, closing his eyes. The merman drew alongside the boat with several easy jumps. Phantom was going to be…and it was his entire fault.

Right on cue, he heard something snap and _twang_, and the sound of rope moving through the water came to a halt with the sound of a splash. A howl came from Phantom as well, that got louder as the trap was hauled up and left hanging on a crane over the deck. The merman twisted and lashed his body, not understanding what was going on yet.

The hand left his mouth and Danny flung open his eyes, staring in dismay at the proud creature now caught in the netting.

"_NO!"_ The cry ripped from his throat at the sight. "No, Phantom!" he took an unsteady step forward, not even noticing when Vlad didn't stop him.

"Phantom! P-Phantom don't, you're only making it worse!" Danny cried, even as he himself tried to move against the rope digging into his skin, but Vlad suddenly yanked him back and made him almost lose his balance again. But while Danny was held in place, Phantom was actually moving and airborne, and it was like any creature of the sea, they didn't like being up in the air, it was terrifying. He bit into the ropes as he swayed from his own momentum and found them unbreakable, and then he focused on Vlad, looking like he wanted to maul the guy right then and there, before glancing at Danny and whining sharply in the back of his throat.

"…_Phantom_? You named it? My god Daniel, and I thought your father was an idiot." The merman twisted at the sound of his name, fixing livid green eyes on the man walking around him and eyeing him. Phantom hissed furiously, trying to reach through to claw Vlad's eyes out or something, that's certainly what Danny hoped he was aiming for.

"Don't lower it yet, he's still moving too much." Vlad commented offhandedly to one of his crewmen over his shoulder, who pulled his hand off the lever that must have been holding the net up.

Danny meanwhile could only stare at Phantom, at his…his best friend, his partner, a swaying mess of scales and skin that was still fighting. He was still trying…and all Danny could do was feel crushing, numb anguish spread through him.

"Please…" Danny begged one final time, lowering his head in defeat, his body sagging against the bonds as hopelessness sunk in.

"Please just let him go…I'll do anything." Even Phantom's noises of displeasure quieted when he caught the level and meaning laced in Danny's tone, as the human hung his head in submission. Phantom paused his aggressive noises and sent a soft croon as he watched Danny sadly. Neither of them noticed the look Vlad and his men shared each other, watching his terrifying monster appear to try and actually comfort the boy.

Vlad didn't answer, he just sneered. He recognized he didn't have to say anything when he saw the way Danny winced when the monster's snarls and growls were interposed by cries of what sounded suspiciously like Daniel's name. Oh…how interesting.

"Please don't hurt him—" Danny tried again.

"I will give you this Daniel; you taught it more than I would think it capable of learning. But that's not what's important. What's important is the fire this creature has—that's no good to anyone." Vlad continued staring at Phantom, and fell silent. Danny hated that lecherous look, and it made him try and pull free again, finally having to stop when his skin felt raw and sore.

"…h-he's not an it, you fruitloop, okay? Phantom is my…" Danny stopped himself, even as Vlad finally truly looked at him and full recognition flashed in his beady eyes.

"…well well."

Danny closed his mouth and looked away, but the damage had been done. Phantom was still moving with more energy than Danny thought possible, and it was all for him. He was still trying to get to Danny, growling his name and glancing angrily at Vlad. The pieces were all fitting together in the man's head as he watched them try to get closer to one another, and he started walking over near Danny with loud footsteps, earning the merman's attention once more.

Phantom watched for a split second before straightening up and trying to spread his fins, teeth bared as Vlad smirked up at him and reached a hand toward Danny, who was trying to watch them both.

Danny leaned away and did his best to look disgusted, praying Vlad's actions wouldn't work. The second Danny gave a wary look at the other human Phantom started snarling threateningly.

"Stop!" Phantom looked like he wanted to do that dangerous wail again—but he wasn't. Danny knew why. He hoped Vlad didn't.

Vlad gave an amused chuckle.

Danny's heart sank even lower when he heard that growling start up again, as empty as it was. But he whipped his head up when he heard Vlad's next words.

"Well…now we know how to kill that fire, don't we, Daniel?" Came a falsely cheerful voice as Danny felt his bonds suddenly loosened. He was given no chance to react, just stare wide eyed at Phantom and the next thing all he knew was **pain** behind his eyes, causing him to crumple to his knees. He was aware of Phantom's indignant screech because it was loud and it permeated the throbbing for a moment. And then a hand was him hauling up and yanking him over toward something—his eyes managed to read floor, railing, sky—ocean. The grip was harder but Danny was too busy counting stars to even sort of get away.

"Say goodbye to your friend, _Phantom_, and Daniel, say hello to the sharks for me." Vlad was speaking too loud to be only addressing Danny, who still had mild vertigo, his body stumbling helplessly when it was shoved suddenly.

Danny got one hazy view of Phantom, upside down and through the railing as gravity took over and he fell, fell—

His back hit water, cold and biting, and even after the waves pulled him under he still heard Phantom's cry of sheer distress echoing between his ears.

**oOo**

Whereas Danny felt nothing, Vlad felt faintly giddy and a hint of pride when he saw the merman freeze and pause, craning in his spot as his cry for the human died on his lips. Half the fun of this job was breaking the beast's spirit, just like a rancher broke a wild stallion in. The merman's grip tightened on the rope and he opened the fins on his head, looking for all the world as if he were listening, yearning for something.

That something didn't appear to come, and when nothing answered the creature's prayers, the merman slumped in the net and his grip loosened. Vlad still waited for a moment, walking up to the monster with his hands folded behind his back. The net eventually was able to sway to a stop, left only to move with the gentle movements of the ship under them. There was nothing spoken for a long time, the merman didn't even sob, but all of a sudden his shoulders slouched and his head ducked, sinking into his mess of a body as he tried to curl up to make himself smaller.

Vlad's grin widened and he motioned with a hand to lower the net.

And when Phantom's body met the ground, he dropped against that too, his face buried in his arms and shoulders started shaking, ever so gently.


	13. Chapter 13

_**Chapter 13**_

Three weeks ago if this had happened he probably would have drowned.

Except you don't spend days on end deep sea diving with a merman, a creature that swam circles round dolphins, without picking up _something_. So Danny closed his eyes once he hit water to avoid the blinding salt, and kept his mouth closed as well. And to be honest it wouldn't have been so bad if not for the waves that were left in the ship's wake, sending Danny's body tumbling through its flurry of cold water, until he could barely remember his own name let alone which direction was the surface, and glorious air. The back of his head throbbed from Vlad's hit, it had done the job to disorient him but was hardly life threatening, (though his math grade probably couldn't stand to lose those precious blood cells, but he'd worry about that later.) And though he was sure his lung capacity was bigger than it used to be, at some point in time he needed air, though he prolonged it by gently issuing out bubbles, relaxing his chest. Soon though, he'd _need_ to surface, no matter how deep the sea was or what was swimming in it within a ten foot radius.

He forced himself to not panic though, and remembered what Phantom had taught him.

Danny stopped struggling, and let the water and his own body naturally guide him…oddly, to the right. He knitted his brows and righted himself till he could kick upward, what once had been sideways to him, and a few moments later broke the surface and took a long deep breath, lungs filling with air and rising him marginally from the water even more.

He gasped, and treaded water for several moments, coughing only a little bit.

"…Pha…" he swiped his bangs back and stared helplessly at the back of the ship, shrinking in the distance.

It was no good to call the merman's name, trapped on the ship with that, that maniac. Danny's eyes narrowed slowly. Phantom couldn't help him now—so Danny would have to do the rescuing. The problem was….how?

"Danny!"

He jumped a mile and swung around in the water using his arms, eyes widening as his parents boat came in view, and arms waved for him to see. His heart rose and sank at the same time, and he didn't even know it could do that.

"S-Sam!? Tucker!" A blue body and a large orange one and—oh god his parents, yep, he was grounded until after forever.

"…Mom? Dad?" came a much more weaker question as the boat moved alongside him, and he grabbed the little ladder hanging over the side, scrabbling on deck with some help from his friends.

"How did…how did you guys know?" He managed, wringing out his shirt and glancing sheepishly at his mom, who stood hands on her hips and foot tapping. The universal mom sign for you are in SO much trouble mister.

"Sam and Tucker came to our house looking for _you_," Maddie started.

"And Jazz told us." Jack finished with a look.

His sister waved weakly from the front of the boat, but Danny was suddenly too relived to care about the trouble he'd be in. And so everyone blinked as he shrugged off the offer for a blanket, and ran to the wheel of the Fentonfisher. Everyone was even more surprised by his next words, the only explanation he gave as he threw himself into the seat of the boat and restarted the small motor.

"W-we have to follow that ship."

**oOo**

"There's no need to be gentle, men, just throw him in the corner and you, I want you to stay down here, you're on guard duty." Vlad snapped, having been giving instructions the whole way—god forbid he do any manual work around here.

The aforementioned crew member, despite being at least two hundred pounds of muscle complete with a tattoo on his bicep, seemed to realize dimly this wasn't a duty he'd be likely to enjoy. He glanced at the hulk of scales and skin, but his eyes strayed longer on those talons as Phantom was shackled without even taking a snap at anyone. After the kid had gone overboard nothing they did elicited a response from the creature, it was baffling and more than a little odd.

"…aye sir."

"Oh and, make sure he eats something," Vlad gestured dismissively as he headed up the ladder. "His death will only lower the price down."

The man nodded and wondered what this thing would eat. Wasn't it virgin maidens or something? That's what all the songs said anyway…

**oOo**

"We are _not_ going after that ship, Danny, we are going home—"

"You guys don't understand, that's _Vlad's_ ship, he's got…he's…" Danny trailed off, the stunned look on their faces enough to know they weren't focused on what Vlad had, more so that it WAS their long time friend.

"…I can explain on the way, but look, he threw me off his ship, he's got a friend of mine held there and…" Danny took a breath and blurted it all out in on go, rip it off fast like a bandaid, "And that friend just so happens to be a merman so if we could _just_—"

"Danny!" Came his mother's shocked gasp, causing the boy to wince.

"…it's true." Everyone looked at Jazz, who was looking at their parents. "Guys, it's true. Danny…Danny befriended a merman a-and he's really amazing and he can speak, he's not…he's not a monster that needs to be hunted or experimented on. He's…kind of like you and me and he's really close with Danny. You guys please, you have to listen to him on this. You don't do it often, you have to admit. But Danny needs this, and, his friend…does to." Jazz finished softly, "They need each other."

At a loss for words, Danny only turned and stared up at his parents helplessly, feeling vaguely like a lost little kid. Maybe that's all he was…but…he was only that way because he'd let his whole world fall into the hands of some deranged lunatic who only saw him as a profitable monster.

He had to make it right.

There was nothing said for a long time, his parents staring at him for several beats with firm looks on their face, that surely meant they were going to deny him and he'd lose precious time and he'd…he'd lose Phantom. Danny's chest ached at the very thought.

Suddenly his mother was moving, and suddenly she in the driver's seat and taking hold of the ship, jerking the wheel and pointing the nose toward the direction Vlad's ship was vanishing into.

"Maddie?"

"…mom?" Danny ventured hopefully.

"No one pushes my baby off their ship. Let's go."

"Wait…this little thing can catch up to that?" Sam questioned, glancing at the boat under their feet dubiously.

"We installed a third gear years ago! Merpeople are—"

"Very fast." Jack raised an eyebrow and Danny just grinned sheepishly.

**oOo**

"He eaten something yet?"

"Nah…hasn't even moved or opened his eyes."

"Could be dead. Wasszat called, died from a'aching heart?"

"You ever heard of a monster like this dying from missing something?"

"Have _you_?"

This question wasn't answered because the person didn't have an answer. He simply shrugged and waved the fish in front of the merman's face again. And again he was ignored, those gills flat and eyes closed, not even tense. Just limp and lifeless.

"…maybe we shoulda kept the kid, could be this devil just wanted to eat _him_."

"That whip wasn't no virgin maiden." Responds the on guard crewhand. His pal shrugged.

"Maybe this monster was taking what he could get." Earning a guffaw from the other man. "I'll bet that's what it was, saving that kid, oi what was his name? Danny—saving him for a snack."

Neither men noticed the green eyes that flicked open when one spoke Danny's name. Or the angry fire that seemed to light through the merman's body, causing him to twist his face in rage and grit his teeth as his hands fisted in their restraints.

And neither noticed the body tensing or the frills lifting open, twitching and fanning out gently.

What they did notice, but a moment too late, was the long low growling that was coming from their feet. They paused and looked slowly down, taking in the exposed sharper than normal canines, the long claws and slitted black eyes boring holes at them, into their very soul.

The men should get some credit though—they made it two steps backward, meaning they didn't _quite_ get the full force of that angry wailing screech the merman unleashed on them.

**oOo**

"….is it just me or is Vlad's boat slowing down?" Tucker asked slowly as they ate up space between them.

"Jack, Jack there goes the radar again," Maddie blinked in surprise when not her husband but her son flew forward, leaning over the console and watching the screen fritz and waver erratically. Danny grinned as that familiar tell-tale scream hit their ears.

"Oh god…what is that?" Sam winced as the cry died out.

"_That_ would be Phantom." Danny said rather proudly as he moved back from the dashboard.

"Phantom?" his parents echoed with raised eyebrows.

"I'll explain later." Danny muttered as he shooed Sam off a bench and opened it up, digging around for something.

After a moment the noise started up again, long and piercing the closer they got. Vlad's boat abruptly banked away from them, moving along a shoreline of a small vacant island.

"He's not…gonna dock there is he?"

"I doubt it Sam—there's no dock. Just a lot of sharp, pointy rocks. And some palm trees. Mostly rocks." Tuck noted, watching the waves crash against the dangerous shore. Few ships could safely land there, even they knew that.

"Then why is he…?"

"I bet Vlad's boat is run electronically…and I bet Phantom just screwed up their navigating system, remember what we read?" Danny smirked as he noticed Vlad's boat stuck between land and his parent's boat, small as it was. They still could get alongside it now and Danny could get back on deck and rescue Phantom.

There wasn't any more screeches after that, but Danny was thankful for the two he had heard, it meant Phantom was still alive, and still able to make that noise. Thinking only of getting to his friend, the second they drew alongside the huge ship Danny flung himself in gear, raising something in both his arms and taking aim.

"Danny! What are you doing with the Fenton harpoon—" the mechanism released and the harpoon soared through the air—

_**Ssshhk**__!_

"Yes!"

"…I hope no one heard that."

"Dude you failed the climbing rope in gym." Tucker deadpanned, everyone staring as Danny tied down the rope, making sure it was taught. The rope also had another feature—it was keeping their boat near Vlad's, despite the waves.

"I got a 68, Tuck. And that was before two weeks of deep sea diving—plus this is important. Also I didn't believe I'd ever actually have to climb one of these and it'd be a life or death situation." Danny blinked. "Guess I owe the gym teacher an apology when I get back."

"Daniel James Fenton you get back here!"

"Sorry mom, I'll take my punishment later, but right now, rgh," he took hold of the rope and tugged, making sure the harpoon was firmly wedged in the wood of Vlad's boat, before putting his full weight on it and heading for the handing ladder that didn't quite reach the water's edge.

"…I have to save Phantom!"

"…he gets that from you, Jack—Jazz, go with your brother!"

"And in the meantime, we'll be here giving old Vlady a little payback, how does that sound kids?" Jack said with a rather wicked grin, pulling out a large iron ball and grinning at the cannon Tucker was sitting next to. Papa Bear was a phrase as well, Sam and Tucker realized dimly as they watched all this unfold.

"Now…let's see if this baby works!"

**OoO**

Over halfway there, and Danny's arms were killing him, and it felt like any moment he'd let go and plummet into the sea for the second time that day, but he pushed on and grabbed hold of the rope ladder. He pulled himself half over and paused, making sure no one was on deck before he clambered over the railing. They must have all been trying to figure out the broken navigator—there wasn't even anybody in the crow's nest.

_Of course not—Vlad doesn't think anyone would challenge him now…jerk. _

A soft grunt came behind him and he startled. Danny whirled around in surprise at the hand that grabbed the railing and hauled the rest of the body up.

"J-Jazz? What are you doing here?" Danny asked, dumbfounded.

"Helping my little brother, what does it look like? You didn't expect Mom to let you go alone." She commented with a vague smirk, adjusting her shirt as she stood up.

"She didn't for fourteen years of trick or treating, you're right, I should have expected this." Danny joked faintly, feeling better all of sudden, now that he wasn't alone.

"But, Jazz, you don't have to—"

"I want to Danny," She finally assured, settling a hand on his shoulder that offered more strength than maybe she knew for him. "Come on, lead the way."

Danny cast his sister a grateful look before nodding and running off. Vlad and the two men on the deck were too busy yelling at his dad, and took no notice of the teens crouching down behind barrels and slipping for cover. Taking a chance, Danny ran into the main hold of the ship, letting Jazz slam the door behind them and find a way to hold it closed.

"…Phantom? _Phantom_!" Danny called, jumping down a ladder, going deeper into the ship. He ran by a port hole and saw his parent's boat still moving by. Jazz was on his heels, but they both halted as they heard a new noise, sharp and high pitched and getting closer. They shared looks of disbelief.

"Is that a—"

The ship rocked under their feet and sent them tumbling, and the whistling noise had ended when the cannonball _slammed_ into the ship and dropped, rolling around above them.

"…great, Dad got the cannon working."

"He doesn't have many of those, right?"

Something slammed down above them, toppled into the water, and Danny was delighted to see it was the mast. Vlad's shouts were muffled as he gave orders and cursed Jack out, but Danny and Jazz only scrambled back up and continued searching.

"Hey, you kids! Come back here!" Two men hired more for their muscle than wit rounded a corner and spotted them, making Danny and Jazz swear and grimace, moving to run down the hall.

"Where does he even _find_ guys that size!?"

"You wanna stop and ask?" Danny panted, ducking round a corner as heavy footfalls sounded behind them. Spotting a floor hatch at the end of the hall, Danny ran for it, yanked it open and dropped down one more level. This part opened to a much smaller hallway, and the wood was saturated and creaking. But Danny didn't care about any of that, all he cared about was the pile of netting and scales and skin in the corner, hunched over and still.

"Phantom!" Danny cried, causing the merman to whip his head up and give a muffled noise of surprise at hearing his name. Muffled-? God he'd been gagged, too, that's why he hadn't been able to shriek again.

"Danny be careful," Jazz started in a warning voice, watching the sea creature create gouges in the wood from his claws as he tried to get leverage.

"Jazz it's okay, he's not gonna hurt us. Phantom, Phantom calm down it's okay! I'm okay!" He tried, and those last two words finally seemed to do something to the merman. Already the knots looked tighter than they should be, and the netting was tangled round every fin Phantom had. This didn't deter the merman from trying to free himself though, and when he saw Danny he'd only started trying again, wide eyes on him desperately as the boy kneeled and tried to calm him.

Jazz walked up behind the two, staying farther away as she watched those claws flex, and Phantom's body slam around with heavy thumps.

"Phantom…" Danny murmured softly, earning Jazz's attention again, especially when he finally started reaching out his hand, holding it before the merman.

And then Phantom's thrashes _slowed_, weakened, before finally halting as he lifted his claws up from the wood—and god his wrists were shackled too—closing the space between their hands to match their fingertips. The merman's features relaxed, despite being bound and gagged and all, he focused on Danny's hand and let the boy get a good look at the mess holding his friend down. Phantom blinked up at him slowly, starting to relax. The moment was broken when the men that spotted them earlier made it through the hold, spotting the kids by the merman and shouting for them to stop.

All Danny's worked was unraveled and Phantom tensed like coiled steel, his scales changing color and his fins trying to spread as he glared at the men, who skidded to a stop. They wanted to get the kids but also wanted to keep their skin on their bodies, and the murderous look in the merman's eyes as he stared up at them was enough to make the thugs take a moment to think it over. Danny glanced over his shoulder and wondered why he counted two less men than before, minus Vlad.

Danny stayed rooted to the spot; it seemed no one wanted to make a move, except for Phantom who was still seething as he glared daggers at Vlad's hired help.

"Danny?" Jazz started slowly, trying to watch her little brother and the crewmen all at once. She edged closer to her brother.

"…get behind Phantom…" Her brother whispered suddenly. "And cover your ears."

"But—" A look silenced her and with wide eyes she took two small steps back. As soon as she cleared his shoulder Danny was reaching a hand agonizingly slowly toward the knot behind Phantom's head that was keeping him gagged. Slitted green eyes watched him too, except until the men before them shuffled warily forward, and then Phantom switched a glare to them, halting the suddenly nervous thugs in their tracks with an aggressive, albeit muffled, growl.

"Danny—" Jazz's voice was laced with confusion and urgency. Something had to give, and soon.

"Phantom, stop…" His sister glanced in surprised as the merman stilled obediently at her brother's words.

As the men took a chance and finally lunged, Danny only whipped the gag off.

"Now!"

Then Danny was ducking behind Phantom as the merman opened his mouth and took a deep breath, before roaring out. It wasn't so much a roar as it was that long wailing shriek, sending waves of noise spreading at the men. The ship shook and trembled, wood splintering. Even out of its reach it stung the ears; Danny could only imagine what it felt like to have that noise directed at you. The ship jerked too much to the left like someone had yanked the wheel. Danny simply kept his hands over his ears and hunched over with Jazz, until the men fled and Phantom relaxed and closed his mouth, wheezing faintly. He slumped against the floor and panted softly, twisting to look at Danny. Phantom murred weakly and whined at him.

"…is he okay?"

"He needs to get in the water, come on, you get that side I'll get this one," Danny spoke hurriedly, jumping to Phantom's other side and starting to work on the swollen ropes and netting. Phantom thrashed weakly and tried to help them.

"Danny? How are we going to move him, he's kind of huge…" Jazz asked, thinking of the ladders they'd gone down. Dropping him was one thing; they couldn't bodily push the merman up the ladder. None of the portholes were big enough.

"Good question. I was kind of making this up as I went along." Danny admitted. A rope fell free, and then the wall in front of them exploded inward, sending wood splinters and water everywhere as the boat trembled and everyone cried out.

"Dad!" Jazz cried out from under Phantom's spread fins as he tried to shield the two humans. "Dad stop it with the Fentoncannon already!"

Phantom rumbled anxiously and stared at the hole the ball left when it entered and then where it sank, exposing the lower hull to the ocean water. Gravity and water started doing the rest.

"Oh great, guess what." Danny moaned, looking down as his jeans started getting soaked. The boat groaned around them and started leaning to the left uneasily, sending the merman and humans with it. Danny pulled himself up from the floor and untangled Phantom's tail better.

"You freed your friend and we're going to be just fine?" Jazz tried in a false cheerful voice as the boat started bobbing more and more to the left, dangerously close to capsizing. Suddenly the feeling stopped, but that was because the water had surged in enough that the boat was heading downward instead of on its side. Danny wondered dimly how close they were to shore now.

Water seeped round them and more bubbled from the bottom up. Phantom hissed and started waving his now free tail, body stretching.

"Something like that." Danny grunted, giving one final yank as the netting was pulled free. Phantom could see and feel the water, so he sat up from his spot instead and looked around anxiously at Danny as the boat gave more, the water splashing their hips now. Danny waded out of it and toward the door, speaking as he went.

"Okay, Phantom, you get Jazz out of here first." That earned him two looks.

"But—"

"Phantom can't get us both out at the same, and I'm the better swimmer. He'll get you to safety, and then come back for me. Easy." He sounded like he was trying to convince them all, really.

"Since when are you the better—?" Her brother gave her a very unimpressed glare and pointed at the merman rumbling anxiously beside her.

"Oh. Right. B-but we can both go! The water's not that bad—woah!" Jazz tried to protest as she was pushed over to the merman, the water plunging in more. Phantom moved with ease, but the humans floundered and took a moment to steady themselves.

"There's no time! Phantom," Danny turned toward the merman watching him instead. "Take Jazz, and go, okay?"

The merman whined and gave him a pleading look, glancing between the hole and Danny.

"Go, Phantom!" Danny cried, pushing them both. "**Now**!"

Phantom's shoulders slouched and then straightened up, a determined look spreading over his features. Phantom glanced at Danny once more before grabbing the still protesting girl round the waist and yanking her through the hole. Because when Danny spoke, Phantom _listened_.

"Wha-hey!"

"No breathe." Phantom just said with a firm tone, and Jazz barely had time to obey before Phantom dived them down and out with a single wave of his tail.

Danny had to admit, he did feel better once he was sure Jazz was okay. Phantom wouldn't let anything happen to her. He watched until the water had risen over the opening and pulled himself through the door as the boat turned on its side, making the floor a wall and the wall a floor. He made it to the hatch they'd dropped down and was halfway up the ladder when it opened, and Vlad's head and shoulders appeared. To his horror the man had goggles hanging round his neck and an oxygen mask ready to place on.

"My my, _look_ what we have here."

Danny froze, kicked a neuron in gear and gave his best glare.

"Vlad! I swear I'll—"

"Sorry Daniel, I do hope you can grow some gills, because it doesn't look like your getting out this way. Abandon ship and all that. Oh and you freed your friend too, goody. No creature of the sea would willingly come back to a boat, even if it is almost underwater. Shame he won't understand what will happen to you. I'll be sure to tell him when I get him again." The man sneered, holding a same type of harpoon his parents made up for Danny to see, and it had the effect he was hoping for, Danny felt his blood run cold.

Danny growled and started climbing up. If he could just get out and buy Phantom a little time—

"What _will_ I tell your mother?" Vlad shot then disappeared from view. Water hit Danny's already soaked sneakers just as the hatch door was slammed shut and a heavy noise could be heard over head.

"No! You can't do this!" The boy cried, flinging up the ladder and shoving his fists against the door, but it wouldn't budge. Danny kept pounding, even as the water reached his sneakers again…and kept rising.

**oOo**

Jazz sucked in air the second they broke the surface, and was surprised to see Phantom had them right by her parent's boat.

"M-mom! Dad! Down here!" She cried, still trying to get her breath back as the merman moved her to the ladder that was tossed down.

"Jazz! Sweetie, here—are you alright? Where's Danny?"

Jazz bit her lip and started climbing up, soon met by her mother's arms and a blanket being pulled around her.

"Jazz? Where's your brother?" She couldn't blame her mother's tone, but she instead spared a glance at Sam and Tucker as they ran over and then back over her shoulder at the sinking ship.

"He's…he's still on the ship, Mom, we had too—"

"He's _what_—Jack we need to get on that ship now!"

"No, mom it's okay! It's okay…"

Jazz, Sam and Tucker were already moving to peer over the edge, watching the black streak of scales slice through the water, tail cresting over the surface every few feet as the merman seemed to fly through the waves at breakneck speed.

"And w-where is he going!?" Jazz heard her mother snap in her distress and confusion. But as for Danny's friends and herself, they all relaxed slowly.

"…to save Danny." Jazz murmured, watching Phantom head back to the sinking ship.

**oOo**

Phantom made it to the sinking ship in record time, and paused, staring at what he could only describe as a giant ruined whale. The waves were pulling it toward the shore, the rocks; it was only a matter of time before it crashed into them and truly went down.

He felt integral fear, a healthy fear, for a merman to have, as he neared this ship and ducked under the water, trying to find the hole he'd exited from.

Yes, he was scared.

But Danny had been too, he could still smell it. Danny had been terrified (for Phantom?) but he'd still come back for the merman. Phantom would be a poor excuse for a mate if he listened to his fears instead of his protective instinct over Danny. The merman darted through the hole—was it bigger?—and navigated the rooms, calling his humans name with bubbly, urgent noises. Danny couldn't…not already; Phantom hadn't been gone that long! He shot up a hole in the ship and came to a new room, when something moved in his peripheral vision. He turned, thinking it to be Danny—only to feel pain pierce his shoulder and see that man's sneering face—the one who'd captured him like a common minnow. Phantom stared at the long metal thing in his shoulder for a second, before gripping it tightly.

Phantom yanked the sharp tooth free, Danny probably had another name for it, and spotted a another opening he had yet to go through. Neptune, his shoulder hurt. But there was still this…man to take care of. The man who'd used his human as bait, who'd locked him up and who'd made him think his partner was _dead_.

And he was in Phantom's territory now. And Phantom was the predator.

The merman suddenly turned glowing emerald eyes on the human, and noted him wearing the same things Danny wore when they swam. Intelligent eyes drank this in before the merman was a blur of black and silver. Phantom barreled roughly into the body, sneering happily when he saw the oxygen tank, ignoring the man's flails as Phantom coiled round him and tightened his hold, watching the bubbles issue out with mild interest. He felt the man move, felt his heart beat wildly and his body flexing for freedom—and Phantom responded by tensing his own, sending a grim message—_he_ was in charge now. Good. The human was scared, as he should be. His hands found the mask and noted the tubing that lead to the tank on the man's back.

Well…Phantom knew what that meant.

Phantom tore the tank off with a swipe of his claws, shoving the body against a wall with all his weight. Without taking a pause Phantom was shredding the tube that let the man breath under water. He heard the cry of surprise and gave an indignant snarl, giving the man a good look at what he'd started, and what Phantom was finishing. Phantom would have like to have done more, so much more, to destroy this vile thing, but his life wasn't just the one at stake here. The threat had been taken care of and Phantom twisted and shot through the final opening, ignoring the trail of blood he left behind, the pounding in his shoulder. Flesh wound, not detrimental to his swimming…not yet.

He just needed…_there_!

It was Danny, and yes his eyes were closed and he was pale but…but it was _Danny_ and Phantom was by his side in a heartbeat, grabbing his face with webbed hands and bringing their lips together. Phantom sucked out what Danny didn't need and breathed in what his human did need. Danny coughed, best he could, and his limbs moved feebly, and that was enough for Phantom. The merman pulled him close and tight, just as the ship around them groaned and splintered, hitting the rocks. They tumbled from the force, and the only reason Danny wasn't smashed against a wall was because Phantom had turned and let his own spine slam against the wood.

Terror split through him again—this was a bad place to be, and they _needed_ to get out, now.

Phantom spotted the opening and did what he did best; swam.

**oOo**

"M-mom—"

"No!"

"_Danny_!"

Everyone on the Fentonfisher watched in horror as the ship slammed into the dangerous rocks that circled most of the small island. With a great crash the boat tipped and capsized, at the mercy of the waves. The Fentonfisher herself and only just escaped by cutting the rope and using her motor to dart safely out to sea, and now they were all waiting, for any sign of Phantom or Danny or…or anything, really.

What they got was a first class seat to a shipwreck, with the knowledge that either Danny, Phantom or both were in that mess somewhere.


	14. Chapter 14

_**Chapter 14**_

Vlad's ship was no more than water logged, useless kindling now. In a few weeks some good driftwood that maybe the locals could see to tourists as tables. Bit of the _Madeline_ and the things it once carried, what didn't sink merely floated to shore. Long shards of wood got stuck on the rocks and the tide simply washed over that too. There was no sign of the Vlad or his crew, but there was a single rowboat on the horizon everyone ignored in favor of watching debris crash to shore.

Everyone on the Fenton's boat was leaning over a side, calling Danny's name, and even sometimes Phantom's, though they never got a response except for the ominous sound of water slapping lazily against rocks. It was only after the ship and finished splintering apart that it was safe to bring the boat in closer, Jack and Maddie wary of getting pulled in with a current the ship had created.

Nobody wanted to panic because nobody wanted to assume the worst—but they hadn't seen any sign of life at all yet surface, let alone Danny or the merman who'd swam boldly back to rescue him. Maybe Phantom never got there in time, or maybe Danny had been dragged to the bottom of the sea, either by ship or merman. Though to be fair only his parents seemed to be thinking this last idea, while Jazz, Tucker and Sam were the only ones who called Phantom's name. Each call was a touch more and more desperate, and each time there were new words.

"Danny? Danny—son!"

"Danny! Please…can you hear us?"

"Phaaaantom! Come on, we know you, you saved Danny, where are you guys?"

The boat drifted around a bend in the island, bringing them to a modest splatter of rocky sand with large boulders smoothed by the tireless sea. It was Jazz who saw it first, and she tensed, staring with wide eyes as she followed a bit of wood that was heading slowly toward the shore. And on that shore in front of it lay that familiar long body, black scales glistening in the sunlight.

"_There_! M-mom, Dad, there's Phantom!"

Indeed there he was, lying with his back to them and tail curled up to his front, a pectoral fin sticking up in the sort of awkward position you assume when you're unconscious—because you don't really have a choice.

If _Phantom_ had washed up on the shore like this then...

What did that mean for Danny—who was human and prone to drowning so much more easily?

The boat was hurriedly wedged safely between the rocks, and everyone jumped off into the shallows, no one caring for clothes as they clumsily floundered through the surf toward the beach. Navigating the rocks left Jack and Maddie to make it to the body first, both stopping dumbfounded. Jazz moved around, gasping at the wound in Phantom's shoulder, the other various bumps and bruises, even some of his scales had been rubbed off—by what? The rocks? Ship? His shoulder, though the sand below it was deep red, was no longer flowing freely, and seemed to have clotted naturally, leaving a blotchy crimson mess where scales and skin used to be.

"Oh…god…"

"But...but where's Danny…?" Jazz heard her mother speak, and her small terrified voice hurt just as much as looking at Phantom's wound did.

"He…he has to be…here somewhere…" Jack tried, taking a step, but he and everyone else froze when they got closer, because they could hear a wheezing, whaspy noise. To Jazz, Sam and Tucker it was familiar and even the elder Fentons understood it after a split second—Phantom was breathing.

But there was still no sign of...

"Oh…D-Danny…" That was their mom, her voice teary and her eyes even more so. Jazz wordlessly moved over and hugged her, half for comfort, half to comfort her.

Suddenly the visible frill on Phantom's head twitched, and lifted up at the sound of her voice. Or better yet what her voice had just said. With an agonizing groan of someone tired down to their very bones, the merman's body moved back almost on his spine. He stayed there, looking tiredly over his shoulder to the five humans still standing in the water. They stared back, holding their breath, some not even blinking. Phantom was still breathing that ragged noise, his body dry and caked with either blood or salt. He watched them unenthusiastically for a moment.

"…Phantom?" Jazz managed with a sob, finally voicing what they all wanted to know but couldn't garner the courage to ask.

"Where is he? …W-where's Danny?"

That frill flicked again, and recognition flooded the merman's intelligent green eyes, replacing the tiredness. He moved his neck to look down at something under him. Then that large fin folded, and Phantom shifted some more, revealing _Danny_ pressed under his girth, safely lying in the depressed sand.

"_Danny_!"

Monster or not, his parents were flying toward Phantom at the first sign of that black hair and white t shirt, moving round to the side Danny was on, who was pulled free by Jack's arms as they both checked him over. His eyes were closed and granted he was limp in his father's grasp but his chest was rising and there was…no blood on him at all.

"He looks…he looks…alright, he's alive!" And so he was.

"Oh thank god, he's…he's alright…"

There were likely to be some bruises but he wasn't pale or shivering or even scraped up. His clothes were still wet. Phantom rumbled faintly when Jazz dropped to her knees next to him and put her hand on top of his head. There was a beat in which, now certain their son was safe (more safe then they could have hoped) both adults lifted their gaze to the merman who suddenly had Sam and Tucker and Jazz all around him, smiling and kneeling fearlessly by the monster. Who for his part moved to his stomach now that Danny was no longer wedged under him, and closed his eyes in exhaustion.

"…So that…mo—merman…saved him." Phantom looked over at Jack when he spoke, causing to simply repeat with a nod. "You saved him."

Phantom sighed heavily and let Jazz pet his good shoulder.

Sam, Tucker and Jazz all shared a look, while the merman responsible for this rescue yawned and rested his chin on his hands, seeming to fight the urge to sleep.

"I told you mom—They…really trust each other. A lot." At Jazz's words both Jack and Maddie turned…faintly embarrassed and sheepish and looked away, and were thankfully given a distraction when Danny shifted in his Dad's arms and his eyes flickered open.

"…wha…Dad? …Mom?" he managed, his voice a croak. His mother gasped.

"Danny! Oh sweetie, how are you feeling? Are you alright—what hurts, what happened—"

"M-mom, hang on…one, one question at a time." But he was laughing weakly as he tried to sit up, and he did so, with only a little help from his father. Okay he…he was alive. That was a good start. And Phantom was too. That was the best part, if he was going to be honest with himself. Danny blinked and seemed to notice something.

"Where's…oh, Phantom?"

And then to his parent's shock Phantom rumbled to life at the sound of their son's voice, his fins perking up as he opened his eyes and twisted toward the boy. Danny smiled and leaned more out of his father's arm, lifting a hand toward Phantom, who murred and flicked his tail.

"Hey, Phantom."

"…Danny." The merman smiled tiredly as he dragged himself over and sagged into Danny's lap with a soft sigh.

"Yeah…it's okay, Phantom." Then Danny glanced at the shoulder, still a mess of scales and blood and skin, and frowned softly. His fingers strayed to gently rub one of those head fins as he murmured with certain firmness,

"Well…it will be."

"…Danny?" Jazz blinked, seeing that look.

"Mom? Dad? Can I…ask a favor?"

"Son—"

"Please." Danny interjected before they could protest. "If not for me than for Phantom…" Danny pleased, as he gestured to the mottled shoulder. "He can't go back in the ocean like this, and you know it." He didn't sound accusing at all, just firm and honest. Phantom was all but crammed in his lap, finally started to really rest and seemed only a snore away from glorious sleep, which of course the merman had earned. How he'd managed to out swim everything, the ship and rocks, and still get Danny on shore safely? No wonder the merman was tired and scraped up.

And though everyone suspected it had something to do with the fact Phantom had saved their youngest child's life, at great risk to his own, his parents relented rather easily.

"…thanks guys…really, thank you." Danny's shoulders sagged as they went and got the boat, Jack actually hefting Phantom's body up. Phantom's tail twitched in his sleep, but as soon as Danny spoke the merman quieted down and drifted off.

Once Phantom—who was now dead to the world and wouldn't wake for anything less than said world ending—was loaded on his parent's boat with little effort, Danny felt a bit better. Actually, he felt more than a little better, but his euphoria was doused by all that had happened and all that lay before them. Everyone knew about Phantom know, he didn't know where Vlad had gone to and for all Danny knew the word about merpeople would spread faster than before.

Though maybe he shouldn't worry about that now. Danny sighed and thanked Tuck as he helped him into the boat.

They had enough people and with Phantom it was a little cramped but they made it work, somehow. Sam offered him a smile that Danny returned with a tired one of his own as he headed for the sleeping merman curled up in the middle of the boat, on top of the glass bottom. Before he knew it Danny was sinking down next to the merman on the floor, rubbing a fin comfortingly as the boats motor roared to life. Phantom stirred just once, eyes half opening but the when his nose his Danny's jeans he relaxed smoothly and his frills sagged.

Danny had the energy to get up only once after that, and it was to get some ocean soaked towels and cover the drying merman in them, who purred in his sleep but didn't wake. Danny thanked his parents, and his sister, and his friends, over and over. He thanked Phantom softly, though the merman clearly couldn't hear him. Since Phantom couldn't fit on a bench, Danny didn't sit on a bench either, he found himself leaning against the merman's good side, and with the sun beating down and the boat moving so steadily and rhythmically underneath them as they headed back for Amity…

Well, no one blamed Danny when they noticed he'd fallen asleep too, curled against Phantom's side.

**oOo**

Danny couldn't tell you what happened after that. One minute he was against Phantom's cold toweled side and the next he was on a sleeping bag in his parent's basement. Despite the hard surface he awoke with only some aches, and blinked sleepily at the ceiling for several long beats. He gained his bearings and realized there was a pillow under his head, and water was splashing gently somewhere to his left.

Wait…moving water? The tank down here had been empty for as long as he could remember…

He turned his head to the left and nearly whacked his hand in surprise at the proximity of it. A delighted croon met his ears when he shifted, and Danny looked up to find the source.

"P-Phantom!" he cried in surprise at the merman leaning with a smile over him.

"Danny!" The merman laughed, half out of the tank, holding himself up by one arm. He flopped his tail in the water and sent it everywhere, overjoyed that Danny was moving again.

"How did you get in the basement—why am _I_ in the basement…on the floor…." He was getting no answers from the merman though, who had dropped under water and was swimming laps cheerfully, despite his heavily bandaged shoulder blade. The tank certainly wasn't the ocean but it seemed to suit Phantom just fine for now. He finally stopped his personal race and pressed his body against the glass Danny was lying before and grinned at him. Danny watched, still vaguely dumbstruck.

Danny pulled himself up, wincing as his ribs were pulled. Yeah, hello aches. And he felt stiff almost everywhere. Phantom noticed his slowness and shot up to meet him, leaning out of the tank again. Danny offered him a smile through his wince and Phantom just murred worriedly.

"Ah…I'm okay buddy, don't worry..." Phantom didn't look convinced but Danny, using the edge of the tank as a support, stood up finally. The tank came to about his neck, and Phantom could keep himself at the same height by stretching his tail out behind him, since the tank was at least three times as long as the merman. He leaned over and nudged Danny with his good arm, smiling gently, those bright green eyes searching his blue ones.

"How's your shoulder?" Danny asked, reaching for the bandages. "Huh…did you do this yourself?"

Phantom rumbled and cocked his head, blinking. Danny chuckled and leaned over, smiling when Phantom closed the distance and pressed their foreheads together. His smile widened when Phantom gave a long content purr.

"…I'm glad you're okay too, Phantom….that was pretty scary for a while, huh?" He murmured, touching the good scaled shoulder and rubbing his thumb over it affectionately.

"…thought I was gonna lose you…" Phantom bumped their noses as Danny talked, his purring shifting tones as he 'spoke' back to Danny. What the hell, Danny decided to try and address the elephant in the room. This seemed a good enough time as any, after all. Life threatening situations can make you very aware of how fleeting the good times are, Danny supposed.

"You mean a lot to me, you know that?" he finally whispered, because this felt like a moment you needed to speak softly during. Phantom's frills fanned out at his voice, and those bright green eyes watched him evenly, alight with warmth and affection so clear Danny _couldn't_ have been imagining it. Not after everything Phantom had just done to prove he…liked Danny back. Not after risking his own life like that.

Good relationships went both ways.

"Phantom…?" He finally ventured, opening his eyes and leaning back so he didn't have to focus on the merman's face cross eyed. Phantom hummed in askance, giving a nod to tell him he had the merman's full attention. Danny bit his lip and inhaled deeply, readying himself.

"Phantom, I…I lo—"

"Danny?" The poor human jumped a mile when his mother appeared on the stairs, and slipped on the sleeping bag, ending up crashing down on top of it, groaning.

Phantom gave a startled noise himself and swam to the bottom of his tank, trying to mother hen the boy from behind the glass.

"Ah…oh, hi mom…" Danny answered, rubbing the back of his head where it'd conked the glass on the way down. If it weren't for bad luck Danny was starting to think he'd have no luck at all.

"Sorry sweetie," came his mom's friendly voice as she walked over, and Danny couldn't find it in himself to even be sort of mad. Ah well.

"Didn't mean to startle you…oh, is your back alright? I know the floor couldn't have been comfortable but it was the only way that—your friend would settle down…you didn't seem to mind either, you kept calling his name."

Danny blushed as he sat up, taking the water and ibuprofen his mother offered. He decided to act like he'd just woken up; it wasn't like Phantom would tell anyone otherwise. Once the merman saw he was alright, Phantom gave a happy chirp and was exploring his tank again, the moment passed. Oh well, it wasn't that a big deal, because it wasn't like Phantom _would_ ever understand his words. Pipe dreams and all that. Danny turned back to his mom.

"T-thanks…for everything, not just this stuff I mean." He managed shyly, certain now he'd be in trouble, and not the kind that Vlad did to him. This was _parental trouble_, which was much worse in Danny's opinion because this sort of trouble you generally deserved. He bit his lip and glanced at her sheepishly, trying his best to ignore the fact Phantom was purring so hard against the glass he was making it vibrate.

"…You're welcome." Suddenly his mother was kneeling next to him and had him a tight hug. Any other time Danny would sit there or maybe give her a one armed hug loosely, out of obliging embarrassment but…this time he hugged her back, realizing there really was nothing like hugging your mom after being scared. Even if you weren't scared anymore.

"I'm so proud of you, sweetie." She murmured in his ear, and he blinked in surprise.

"H-huh?" Danny managed as he was let go. He leaned against Phantom's tank and stared at her. "But I…I kept Phantom a secret from you…and then I let him get captured by Vlad and…and I used up like fifteen oxygen tanks just so you know, they weren't just falling over all this time…and it wasn't a stray cat getting into the fish either." He finished lamely, feeling better that this was all coming out. His mother shot him a wry look and twisted her lips, smiling.

"I wondered. Your father believed it but I had my suspicions. I never thought…he would be the reason behind it."

Danny paused, and then smiled. "…you called him he."

"Oh just…well after everything...it's hard not to, he is…rather friendly." Maddie admitted, watching the merman twist effortlessly in the water and chase after a flicker of light. Phantom spotted her looking and coasted over, and when she smiled he perked up and beamed back. The merman poked his head above water and cocked his head down at them both.

"…Danny?"

"And he can talk." His mother marveled.

"Kinda, yeah." Danny chuckled. "…so you're…proud of me?" he mumbled suddenly, glancing at her. She nodded.

"The way you handled what you did today, and what you did before all that…Jazz told us everything."

_She couldn't have told you…__everything__. _Danny thought, thinking of their many kisses. He glanced over his shoulder at the merman, noting the expert wrapping and the way Phantom kept itching it.

"How long was I asleep?" he said instead.

"Oh, long enough. Here, why don't you take a look at Phantom? Before he crawls out of the tank again." She commented easily enough. As she helped him up and said that, Danny had the decency to look sheepish.

"Oh geeze," he glanced at the water stains on the floor as he stood up slowly. "Sorry, mom…" surprisingly she just smiled that secret smile again, and Danny wondered vaguely why it reminded him of Sam's. he was distracted when a tail rose out of the water so Phantom could stare at the black bottom of the tank with obvious interest, used to sand and rocks under him.

Danny smiled as he stood against the tank, watching the merman spot him. Danny grinned and held out his arms, causing that tail to flick under and the merman to rise up in front of him and tackle him in a hug, sending water sloshing everywhere. He had his arms round the merman before the water finished splashing, laughing as he was nuzzled and purred against.

Danny realized then, maybe it didn't quite matter what he said, or didn't get to say, because Phantom seemed to comprehend him either way. Spoken and unspoken. Maybe that was more than a little okay. They had each other, were healthy for the most part or on the mend, and maybe for the moment Danny should just be grateful they had that. It was better than nothing. And maybe someday he and Phantom would be able to have more, if they were lucky enough

What they did have now was each other, and that seemed to them to be good enough as anything.

"He's very attached to you, isn't he?"

Danny smiled as Phantom met his gaze with that usual smirk.

"You don't know the half of it."


End file.
